A GRADED COURSE OF NATURE STUDY. 329 



CHAPTER XV. 



A GRADED COURSE OF NATURE STUDY. 



THE following course of study illustrates the appli- 

 cation of the principles enunciated in the preceding 

 chapters. It "is the result of several years of thought, 

 experience, and experiment. The course in plant study 

 was originally prepared by the writer (while teaching 

 biological sciences in the high school, and directing 

 science work in the elementary schools of St. Paul, 

 Minn.) as part of the Report of the Conference on Nat- 

 ural History to the Committee of Ten, and was pub- 

 lished in the " Report of the Committee of Ten." The 

 course was immediately adopted in the schools of St. 

 Paul, and has since been followed to a greater or less 

 extent in many schools from New England to Califor- 

 nia. The work of the first four grades, in all subjects 

 plants, animals, minerals, and physics and part 

 of that for upper grades, was planned for the schools of 

 St. Paul, when the writer was acting as Supervisor of 

 Nature Study in those schools. The course was subse- 

 quently extended and somewhat modified for the Prac- 

 tice School connected with the State Normal School at 

 Oswego, N.Y. 



The course of study is not, therefore, based merely 



