ON THE TEACHING OF SCIENCE IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 315 
The experiments are carefully prepared in the Laboratory, and a 
hand-cart specially fitted up for the purpose conveys the apparatus neces- 
sary for their performance from school to school. 
The lessons are given in both the girls’ and boys’ departments to the 
children in Standard V. and upwards, and one of the school teachers is 
always present. Between the visits of the demonstrators (which are at 
present fortnightly) at least one lesson on the same subject is given by 
the teacher of the class. In this the matter of the demonstrator’s lesson 
is recapitulated and expanded, and such new points are taken up as may 
be necessary for the completion of the instruction in the subject. An 
examination on paper is also heid fortnightly, during the time allowed 
for composition and dictation, the answers being laid before the Science 
Demonstrator at his next visit. 
The subjects taught have been Elementary Mechanics and Electricity 
to the boys; Domestic Economy and Physiology to the girls. Lessons 
are now being given to about 1,500 boys and 1,000 girls in twenty-nine 
schools; and with the increase of the schools, the system will doubtless 
be extended by the Board. The plan framed does not, it must be ob- 
served, give scientific instruction in a few special schools, but provides it 
in all schools under the Board as a part of the regular work of the school. 
In schools situated in the poorer localities—for which the charge 
made for the whole work of tbe school is only one penny per week—the 
science instruction is as carefully given as in the others, and secures the 
intensest interest and attention of the scholars. 
Classes in connection with the Science and Art Department are also 
established for pupil teachers in the service of the Board. 
Tested by experience, the success of the scheme may be regarded as 
thoroughly established. 
The introduction of scientific instruction has added new life to the 
general work of the schools. The intellectual interest of the scholars has 
been aroused, and the papers on the ordinary subjects of elementary 
education have become more numerous. A school which passes a good 
examination in science is found, as a matter of fact, to pass a better 
examination than ever before in writing, reading, and arithmetic. 
Experiments being performed in the sight of the scholars, and appa- 
ratus being actually shown to them, the instruction does not in the 
slightest degree partake of the nature of ‘ cram.’ 
Special examinations have been conducted by an independent examiner 
—Professor Poynting, of the Mason Science College—and that gentleman 
has reported to the Board, with great satisfaction, that the answers to 
the questions set have been characterised by intelligent thought. The 
- actual report made is worth quoting, as a sufficient reply to those who 
fear lest the introduction of science should mean the increase of mere 
mechanical ‘ cram.’ 
‘Hardly any of the questions in my paper could have been answered 
without independent thought on the part of the candidates, and I had 
very few answers showing a want of such thought. The boys showed 
that they had seen and understood the experiments which they described 
—that they had been taught to reason for themselves upon them—and 
that they were not merely using forms of words which they had learnt 
without attaching physical ideas to them.’ 
The system described is economical as well as effective. The apparatus 
being carried from school to school, the great expense of providing a set 
