2 .*: 



/:';: : /: THE:'B<X)K OF NATURE STUDY 



liminary observations may be very well rendered vivid to the 

 little ones by some simple artifice, as for instance by the display 

 on the schoolroom wall, day by day, of a human figure chosen to 

 represent the particular type of weather, such as those which 

 some journals show in their weather reports. When these obser- 

 vations have been continued for some little time, an attempt 

 should be made to analyse the sensations upon which the char- 

 acterisations have been based, with a view to bringing out the 

 fact that we have been dealing with four great sets of variables : 

 (i) the amount of sunshine, which is again related to the clearness 

 of the sky ; (2) the temperature ; (3) the amount and nature of the 

 movement of the air, i.e. the wind ; and (4) the amount of moisture 

 in the air, or the humidity. By questions and examples it should 

 be brought out that all our many changes in weather, as observed 

 by the senses, are due to changes in one or other of these four 

 points, each of which demands further study. 



First, as regards sunshine and temperature, bring out the fact 

 that on any given day it is always hotter in the sun than out of 

 it ; that our hottest days are those when the sun shines longest 

 (roughly speaking, that is) ; that it is colder at night when the sun 

 does not shine than in the day when it does, and so arrive at the 

 deduction that the sun is the great source of heat. What then 

 becomes of the sun on cloudy and foggy days ? The teacher 

 will be wise to devote much time to the answering of this question, 

 for the fact of the sun's presence in the sky on dull and cloudy 

 days, behind the clouds, is by no means clearly realised by children 

 and uninstructed people. 



Some homely examples will help to make the matter clear. 

 The washhouse darkened on a summer's day by the clouds of 

 steam, the locomotive at the railway station darkening the sky 

 as it blows off steam, such familiar facts as these should not be 

 neglected in trying to explain the meaning of cloud. If the 

 school be placed in a narrow valley, or near the seashore in a 

 district with considerable hills in its vicinity, the formation of 

 mist and cloud can often be beautifully illustrated on an autumn 

 or winter morning, when the mists lie low in the valley or on the 

 seashore, while the sun shines brightly on the hilltops. In this 

 way it is sometimes possible to illustrate in a very striking fashion 



