ELEMENTARY SCIENCE AND NATURE STUDY. 119 



In the lower grades, the cat and dog, the balsam and 

 geranium, and a limited number of topics have been studied 

 for weeks or even months, off and on, but observation has been 

 exercised and sympathies excited in a great many directions. 

 By this time, however, the pupils are beginning to recognize 

 threads of order and system running here and there through 

 the multitude of physical units that environ them. They 

 begin to feel pleasure in the scientific attitude which, in high 

 school and college, will lead to generalization of structures and 

 systems of classification. 



Although generalizing and classifying may become pleas- 

 urable and profitable there will never come a time when the 

 student is too advanced for intensive study of a single type or 

 ecological studies of plant and animal societies. In the 

 literature of science there is no other class of books which 

 teachers more greatly desire to see increased than such delightful 

 and helpful monographs as Sargent's " Corn Plants " and 

 Marshall Ward's "The Oak." 



Elementary Science and Nature Study. —Read the 



general directions under Grades Five to Eight of the Manitoba 

 Course (page 38). Grade Eight corresponds to the Fifth 

 Form of the Ontario system. Studies of subjects such as the 

 Covering of Animals, Bills and Feet of Birds, the Distribu- 

 tion of Seeds, Morphology of Floral Organs, Regions in Cross- 

 sections of Plant Stems, Formation of Different Soils, Methods 

 of Controlling Weeds, if properly treated, show the transition 

 from Nature Study to Elementary Science. 



Structure, Function, and Classification. — When the cat and 

 dog were compared (page 43), the difference in their hair was 

 noticed. The difference may now be reverted to again, but 

 this time in connection with a comparative study of the 

 natural coverings of animals. Flowers have been observed 



