504 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. 



Committee fail to realise the great importance of the latter ; the neglect-of 

 the study of outdoor life that huge classes and the methods of the ' results 

 system " have engendered is to be deplored and in a previous Report the 

 Committee have strongly advocated the employment of more scientific 

 methods of instruction in this branch. English nature-study is largely 

 based upon the writings and methods of American teachers, and the wave 

 of enthusiasm which has spread from that country has brought together 

 with much which is admirable much which is unsound and superficial. 

 The neglect of experimental methods of inquiry in the teaching of physical 

 science is one of the weakest points in the curricula of America's schools 

 and in consequence their school nature-study has suffered. At any rate 

 it should not be forgotten that Nature is concerned with dead as well as 

 with living matter, and that a knowledge of the transformations of the 

 former is essential to the study of the latter. 



In the lower standards the degenerate 'object-lesson,' which more 

 often than not amounts to little more than a didactic information-lesson, 

 should give place to real study and observation of plant-life and the more 

 obvious natural phenomena ; before any detailed study of the conditions 

 of plant-growth can be attempted with success a systematic experimental 

 study of the simplest physical and chemical changes is necessary. 



If science teaching is to achieve its full effect in training the reason- 

 ing powers and in the formation of accurate habits, it must involve the 

 experimental solution of problems ; as an instrument for exemplifying the 

 experimental method of inquiry, physical science has many obvious 

 advantages beyond those oflered by a study of biological subjects ; a 

 study of such simple physical subjects as the nature of air, the effects of 

 heat on matter, fluid pressure, the composition of the atmosphere and 

 the effect of plant and animal life upon it, would seem to be fundamental 

 to any intelligent study of plant growth and should certainly precede it ; 

 in the study of plant-life the conditions of experiment are so complex 

 that the experimental method of inquiry can only be followed to a very 

 limited extent in elementary schools. 



The enthusiastic teacher who has made nature-study his hobby will 

 rise superior to syllabuses and programmes and should be given a free 

 hand ; the average teacher, however, finds a carefully drawn and detailed 

 syllabus of work helpful. For such teachers it is difficult at present to 

 provide a scheme of biological studies that will ensure regular and pro- 

 gressive instruction. In physical science, the difficulty of preparing 

 graduated syllabuses is not so great ; some suggestions for experimental 

 courses in different types of elementary schools are appended to this Report. 



In deciding what practical work of an exact kind is most suitable for 

 individual pupils in the upper standards of an elementary school we feel 

 that by skilful teaching of experimental science better training may be 

 given than by the conventional methods of nature-study and that it is 

 more easy to obtain a supply of competent teachers in the former than in 

 the latter branch. Further that much will be lost if the pupil leave the 

 primary school without a knowledge of those fundamental facts necessary 

 to the intelligent understanding of the common phenomena of daily life ; 

 he should at least be equipped with that substratum of knowledge of 

 physical science which is necessary to the continued study of any branch 

 of science, whetlier technical, agricultural, or domestic. 



The ' Suggestions ' of the Board of Education in reference to instruc- 

 tion in elementary physical science appear to be meagre and inadequate 



