90 THE NATURE STUDY COURSE. 



teaching how to take care of the sense organs may be taken 

 up in this and the higher classes. Pages 4 to 13 of "Public 

 School Nature Study " (The Copp, Clark Co., Limited) give an 

 excellent series of Nature Study lessons on the senses and 

 sense organs. There are good lessons on the hygiene of the 

 sense organs in Knight's " Introductory Physiology and 

 Hygiene." 



Inanimate Nature and Geography.— The prescriptions 



under these headings are quite specific, and require the 

 teaching of standard lessons in physical geography by the 

 observational and comparative method. Concepts so far as 

 possible are to be originated from out-door observations and 

 experiences, and to be reviewed and expressed in the school- 

 room. " Topics not directly within the range of the pupil's 

 observation may be studied whenever the relationship is close 

 to actual experience." As a mode of expression the Manitoba 

 Course emphasizes modelling on the sand-board. Substitutes 

 for sand are clay, putty and paper-pulp. A material called 

 "plasticene" can be bought from dealers in school supplies. 

 This substance remains plastic, and hence can be used over 

 and over again ; it is easy to mould, clean to work with, and 

 can be spread on slate, wood, or cardboard. A little of it goes 

 a long way, so that in the end it is not expensive. Objection 

 is made to the repeated use of the same plastic material 

 on the ground that diseased hands may render it liable to 

 inoculate the hands of subsequent users. Manufacturers 

 should incorporate some germicide capable of preventing that 

 result. Clay may be got at the nearest tile or brickyard. 



Systematic Weather Records— For the making of these 



records some school boards supply printed forms. Pupils may 

 rule such forma, each for himself, from a copy on the black- 

 board. In some schools a form is ruled on the blackboard, 

 and pupils in turn under the criticism of the class fill the 



