344 Notes and Comments. 



I had the pleasure of examining this curious bird in its native 

 element ; it is wholly incapable of flight, but so expert a diver 

 that every effort to shoot it was ineffectual." 



SCIENCE TEACHING IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 



The introduction to the ' Report on Science Teaching in 

 Secondary Schools, issued by the British Association' (86 pp., 

 price i/-) gives a short historical resume of the Association's 

 previous efforts to reform the teaching of science, dwelling more 

 particularly on the heuristic phase of Armstrong and Miall. 

 Some comparison is made of the time devoted to different 

 branches of science in different types of Secondary Schools ; 

 although the suggested proportion of £ for boys and -1 for girls 

 is not followed in the typical schemes which are given. 



SCIENCE AND SCIENTIFIC METHOD. 



It is pointed out that science, as distinguished from scientific 

 method, has its own particular value in a curriculum, and that 

 in teaching, the ' wonder motive ' arising from delight in 

 natural phenomena, the ' utility motive ' which leads man 

 to make use of nature and the ' systematising motive,' should 

 all be recognised as inherent activities of a child's mind and 

 should be cultivated in due order. Other subjects are the 

 growing scarcity of teachers of science and their inadequate 

 remuneration, the rarity of schools with a scientific Principal, 

 the necessity for freedom in teaching and the advantages of 

 basing examinations on a school's own scheme of studies. 



SCIENTIFIC HISTORY. 



There is little in the Report which is fresh or even freshly 

 stated. Perhaps the most valuable items are the emphasis 

 which is placed upon the rousing and humanising stimulus 

 obtained by introducing more of the history of scientific 

 discoveries and biographies of scientists, and the idea of 

 leading more frequently from the great applications of science 

 to the science of the laboratory experiments. 



SCIENCE COURSES. 



A group of typical Science Courses is given, concerning 

 which the most curious fact is that almost without exception 

 they are drawn from the South of England. Is there no science 

 teaching worthy of consideration in the North of England or 

 in Scotland, and are there no science teachers in the North 

 capable of expressing their views on the subject ? It is un- 

 fortunate that what might have been a Report of the highest 

 value at the present time should have left outside its limits 

 the experience of the most vigorous industrial areas of the 

 country, whilst at the same time it has provided so little 

 inspiration or sound suggestion. 



Naturalist, 



