502 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. 



laboratories have been provided in ahnost every good school and the 

 attempt to give logical experimental instruction is at least professed. 

 Test-tube work and the analysis of salts are for beginners a thing of 

 the past, and the balance is made the basis of the first years of experi- 

 mental work. During the regime of the inspection of ' Schools of 

 Science ' by the officials of the old Science and Art Department good con- 

 structive work was accomplished, and this period did much to set the 

 standards of work since adopted in secondary schools generally. 



In the primary schools great changes have also taken place ; the 

 higher grade schools of the larger urban education authorities are usually 

 well equipped and a special teacher of experimental science is appointed 

 to take charge of the laboratories. Increased provision has also been 

 made in pupil-teacher centres and in training colleges for the teaching of 

 experimental methods. 



In many urban centres, from reasons of economy and because few of 

 the ordinary teachers possessed an adequate acquaintance with apparatus 

 and experimental methods, a special staff of peripatetic science demon- 

 strators was appointed : these taught periodically in the schools of their 

 district, usually carrying their apparatus about with them. The scheme 

 of instruction followed was known as 'Mechanics' but embraced a 

 superficial treatment of hydrostatics, the laws of force and motion, heat, 

 chemistry and electricity. In some cases the individual ability of the 

 demonstrator made the lessons useful and interesting, but the system was 

 only adopted as a matter of expediency and the scheme of instruction has 

 been far too comprshensive to lead young children to much real knowledge 

 that could be applied to life later on. Under tliis system of peripa- 

 tetic instructors little effort lias been made or could be made to co-ordinate 

 instruction in science with that in other subjects, such as composition, 

 arithmetic, and drawing. Between the visits of the special instructor 

 the class teacher was supposed to revise the lesson without the assistance 

 of the apparatus that the former cariied round with him : this revision 

 was done in a half-hearted way and led to undesirable methods of 

 memorising half-digested information. 



It appears to be undesirable that the system of special peripatetic 

 instructors should continue, except as a temporary expedient and until each 

 school possesses a permanent and sufficiently qualified teacher of experi- 

 mental science. The services of a staff of specialists should be employed 

 in instructing the ordinary teachers, more especially in the methods of 

 teaching and organisation. The rigid adherence to the class-teacher 

 system met with in most primary schools should be abandoned and the 

 best qualified teacher should be responsible for the instruction in several 

 classes, if not for the whole school ; it should be the business of the 

 head teacher to ensure adequate co-ordination of instruction in drawing, 

 composition, and arithmetic with that in science. 



The Relation of Nature-Study and Observation Lessons to 

 Experimental Science. 



The ' Suggestions ' of the Board of Education deal in detail with the 

 aims and methods to be observed in nature-study, the advice therein 

 given being substantially in agreement with our Report presented at the 

 York Meeting. It is satisfactory to notice that the guiding principles 

 which through the teaching of experimental physical science have been 



