170 THE NATURE STUDY COURSE. 



"Teachers will find it one of the most convenient means for the 

 stimulation of pupils in observing all natural phenomena when going to 

 and from the school, some of the pupils radiating as far as two miles 

 from the school-room. The Nature Study under these conditions would 

 be mainly undertaken at the most convenient time, thus not encroaching 

 on school time ; while on the other hand it will tend to break up the 

 monotony of school travel, fill an idle and wearisome hour with interest, 

 and be one of the most valuable forms of educational discipline. The 

 eyes of a whole school daily passing over a whole school section will let 

 very little escape notice, especially if the first observer of each annually 

 recurring phenomenon receive credit as the first observer of it for the 

 year. The observations will be accurate, as the facts will have to be 

 demonstrated by the most undoubted evidence, such as the bringing of 

 the specimens to the school when possible or necessary. To all observers 

 the following most important, most essential principles of recording are 

 emphasized : Better no date, no record, than a wrong one or a 

 doubtful one." 



For the purpose of dealing with these reports the Province 

 is divided into ten regions. A specialist in each region 

 receives the reports from the schools of his region and makes 

 a summary for the Education Department at Halifax. One 

 hundred phenomena are mentioned in the printed form, but 

 in the general summary for 1904 several schools reported over 

 200— the one at French River, Miss McLaren's, led with 272. 

 Think what it means to a group of children that they have in 

 a year observed, discussed and named or expressed over 200 

 noteworthy natural phenomena. British Columbia and 

 Denmark, it is said, have adopted this feature of Nova 

 Scotia's Nature Study work. 



Minerals and Rocks. — The uses, physical properties and 

 natural history of some of the common minerals may be 

 studied in an elementary way with much profit and interest 

 by the higher grades. In some school sections the materials 

 are varied and abundant, and may be studied in their native 

 situations as well as in the school-room. So far as practicable 



