456 R15P0RTS ON THE STATE OiP SCIENCE. ' ' 



heave difficulty iu stating their age, at all events in stating months as well 

 as years. Ask each child to write a little letter stating when it was born 

 and how old it is at the date of writing. These letters will serve as 

 literary compositions ajid can be more or less discussed as English and 

 writing lessons. They will also show how far the children understand 

 the division of the year into months and days and will afford an oppor- 

 tunity of giving lessons on this subject. 



' Have the letters read out one by one by their writers, so that each 

 child may make out a table in which the members of the class are 

 arranged in the order of age, the age being given in columns headed 

 years and months and also, in a second column, in years with the number 

 of months written after the year number but separated by a dash ; thus — 

 A. B., 9-4 years, meaning 9 years 4 months. 



' Later on, the children may be led to understand how the month 

 numbers in the second column may be converted into fractions, thus — 

 9-4 = 9 -f*.T years = 'x\f months. The length of different months 

 and of the year can be discussed at a later stage, when they are asked to 

 state their age in days. 



' As soon as the age tables have been drawn up — in itself an exercise 

 in neatness and the arrangement of figures, &c. — draw attention to the 

 difficulty the eye has in taking in the information such tables give and 

 the need of some picture which could be more easily understood. Ask 

 for suggestions. Then introduce the foot-rule and point out how the inch 

 inay be taken to represent, say, a year ; next let each child cut out a strip 

 of plain or coloured paper to scale to represent its height ; by pasting 

 these on a sheet of paper pinned to the wall or blackboard, a diagram 

 would be obtained representing the relative ages of the children. The 

 strips might be arranged in several ways — (a) in the alphabetical order of 

 the children's names ; (b) in tlie order of their ages ; (c) in the order 

 of their heights. Sooner or later each child should draw or colour such a 

 diagram on card or drawing-paper. The absence of a scale would make it 

 necessary to measure the length of the strips to find out the age ; a graph 

 should therefore be made by drawing upright lines at regular distances 

 apart, lines being also drawn across the paper to serve as a scale. Then 

 squared paper should be given out and its use explained ; the ages should 

 be indicated on it only by dots. A. line should then be drawn through the 

 dots to show the variation from child to child. The conception of a middle, 

 mean or average age should next be developed and indicated on the 

 diagram by a line drawn across it through the various dots. The de- 

 parture from the mean in the case of each child should be deduced, first 

 by measuring and then by calculating. Throughout such woi"k accuracy 

 should, as far as possible, be insisted on. 



' At this stage the height of each child should be ascertained and, if 

 possible, its weight. Graphs should then be made as before, showing the 

 height and weight of each member of the class in comparison with age. 

 Curves should also be drawn to bring out the relationship between the 

 three. By repeating the observations at stated intervals a record of 

 growth would be obtained. It will be desirable to obtain each child's 

 actual weight. To do this, if an undressing-room be not available, they 

 might be weighed in ordinary attire one day and the next day they 

 might bring all the clothes they had on at the time of weighing in a bag 

 provided for the purpose ; the clothes could then be weighed and their 

 weight deducted. . . 



