506 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. 



a hundred hours, of laboratory instruction. Experience shows that 

 students who have attended special classes or training colleges often fail 

 to obtain a sufficient grip of the subject to enable them to teach effectively 

 after the first course of lessons ; a second revision course is of great value 

 to these, especially if the teacher in the meantime make an honest attempt 

 to teach the subject in school. 



Organisation of Practical Work in the School. 



Where the school is provided witli a laboratory, it is desirable that 

 one teacher should be responsible for its care and for the instruction that 

 is given within it ; if it is necessary to employ a second science teacher, 

 he should act as an assistant to the responsible science teacher. A balance 

 and other apparatus should be provided if possible for every two pupils 

 in the laboratory. In designing a science work-room, it is neither neces- 

 sary nor desirable to provide elaborate furniture. Strong tables fitted, if 

 possible, with gas and plenty of floor-space are all that is really needed. 

 A separate lecture-room is unnecessary, but a demonstration table and 

 a few forms should be placed in the laboratory. It is undesirable to 

 provide storage accommodation for individual pupils ; cupboards under 

 the tables should be designed for the purpose of general storage. There 

 should be no shelving on the tables and two or three large sinks on the 

 walls of the room are all that would be required. 



In comparatively few cases, however, has the primary school a special 

 room for the teaching of experimental science at its disposal ; but in 

 the majority of cases, where no such room or equipment is available, 

 the individual practical work of the pupils cannot be carried out simul- 

 taneously. The few simple pieces of apparatus necessary for the leading 

 experiment or experiments of the week's work should be kept upon a 

 table in the class-room, or upon a narrow shelf hinged to the wall 

 throughout the day, and pupils should be sent out singly or in pairs from 

 time to time at the discretion of the teacher during any periods in which 

 no class instruction is taking place, to repeat experiments which have 

 already been carefully performed before the whole class and thoroughly 

 explained. An equipment of value about 10/., in addition to a good 

 strong table and storage accommodation, will enable a very considerable 

 amount of practical work to be accomplished. 



The minimum time necessary is one and a half to two hours per week, 

 exclusive of the time devoted to the writing of notes, which may form a 

 considerable part of the teaching of English composition in the school. 



The teacher's demonstration lesson, in which he breaks new ground, 

 should be of about one hour's duration. In this lesson, having led 

 his class to an appreciation of the problem to be solved and having 

 obtained from its members suggestions as to the mode of solution, the 

 experiment will be performed, possibly with the assistance of some of 

 the pupils, the results will be recorded and between this and the revi- 

 sion lesson later in the week or even in the following week the experi- 

 ment, if suitable, will be repeated by the pupils working in pairs at odd 

 times during the progress of other lessons. There are many suitable 

 periods for such work and the ten or twenty minutes that a pupil keenly 

 interested may spend at an accurate experiment will not be wasted nor 

 will an appreciable interruption of other studies occur. Much successful 

 work from this plan has been accomplished but, like any other kind of 



