1905 | Nature Stupy—No. 24. | 75 
NATURE STUDY—No. XXIV. 
APPARATUS REQUIRED FoR NaTurRE STupy. 
S. B. SINCLAIR. 
It is often urged that ‘‘A Nature Study laboratory is neces- 
sary for the successful teaching of elementary science and that 
without expensive apparatus the work done will be of little or no 
value.” 
the introduction of Nature Study into the primary grades of 
elementary schools, for the general public are not likely to* sanc- 
If this view be entirely correct it is prohibitive as regards 
tion any large expenditure for such a purpose. A brief investiga- 
tion of this argument therefore may not be out of place. 
Nature Study versus Laboratory Method.—The method of the 
laboratory is usually artificial, technical, abstract. In a laboratory 
experiment the conditions set up are different from the natural 
conditions and are established with the purpose in view of dis- 
covering or proving certain facts or laws by eliminating irrelevant 
factors and gaining control of others. 
Now, a study of genetic psychology reveals the fact that, 
speaking generally, it is only when the child has reached the period 
of youth (beginning at the age of from 12 to 14 years ) that the 
mind takes on the more reflective laboratory attitude which is 
interested in law, abstraction and generalization, seeks truth for 
its own sake, desires to probe into the hidden meaning of things 
and to develop technique in a scientific way. 
Previous to this age and during the period of childhood (from 
about 6 to 12 or 13 years) when the child is in the primary classes 
ofthe Public School, the attitude is quite different. During this 
period the unity of interest is found in serial order, a relation of 
means and ends, a history or scheme. The child likes to observe 
the process from one stage to another and see how it is going to 
come out. He also finds his greatest pleasure in the development 
of skill in the attainment of some life purpose. It is a delight to 
him to find that he has gained a power to cause the process to 
come out differently from the way in which it otherwise would. 
He is not content with mere play as he was in the previous stage 
of infancy, but begins to look ahead, make plans for the future 
