74 The Nature-Study Exhibition 



creatures'. In schools particularly, it seems so often to be thought that 

 an aquarium or vivarium is too difficult a thing to keep going success- 

 fully. 



*' In their course of work they attach 'special value to the investiga- 

 tions made l)y the students themselves on the structure and habits, &c., 

 of the animals they study'." 



The exhibits from this Institute were intended to — 



*' Demonstrate how very possible and easy it is to keep many animals 

 under more or less natural conditions, and yet in such a way that they 

 are easily studied. . . . These can be obtained from the ponds by the 

 students themselves, and can therefore be studied both in their own 

 natural habitats and also subsequently in the aquaria in our own mu- 

 seum. It is this part of the work which arouses the keenest interest in 

 the students, and which afterwards, when they themselves begin to 

 teach, is of the greatest use to them. The small exhibit of books, &c., 

 from the P'rcebel Institute School and Kindergarten was intended to 

 show that the work is done on the same lines there, i.e. in trying to 

 interest the children in the life all around them, and to lead them to 

 observe carefully and accurately. The children keep the living plants 

 and animals in their class-rooms for some time before the actual lesson 

 on them, the chief aim of which is to collect together, and when neces- 

 sary explain, the observations previously made by the children. 



*' In the three lower classes the lessons are entirely on living plants 

 and animals kept by the children in school and at home. These classes 

 each keep nature calendars. These are entirely their own unaided 

 work, and show that the children are interested and are learning to use 

 their eyes and to think about what they see. 



" The next class sent to the exhibition an account of the experimental 

 work in plant physiology which it had been doing, and each class sent 

 representative collections, made during the holidays, of grasses, leaves, 

 flowers, &c." 



The Salisbury Diocesan Training College sent a detailed 

 scheme of lectures and lessons on plant and animal life, 

 showing how these are correlated with clay-modelling, black- 

 board drawing, and brush-work. It must be also noted 

 that at this College — 



•* Frequent excursions into the country take place during the spring 

 and summer sessions, the students making detailed notes of their actual 

 observations of phenomena and plant and animal life." 



