ON SCIENCE IN SCHOOL CERTIFICATE EXAMINATIONS. 475 



APPENDIX II. 

 Typical Science Courses. 



Experience has shown that the most useful function a committee on 

 science teaching can perform is to present schemes of work which can be 

 carried out practically. Examples of the influence of such schemes are 

 afforded by the Reports on Teaching Chemistry presented by Committees 

 at Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1889 and Leeds 1890, the Report on the 

 Teaching of Elementary Mathematics presented at the Belfast meeting in 

 1902, and the Report on Science Teaching in Secondary Schools published 

 in the Report of the Association for 1917. The effects of these Reports 

 have been so beneficial and far-reaching that the present Committee is 

 hopeful that the specimen courses here submitted^ will have a like 

 influence upon science teaching. It is not suggested that the schemes 

 should be prescribed for any particular schools, but rather that they 

 should be considered as examples of courses which have been proved 

 successful. 



I. — Science for all in a Public School. 



By Archek Vassall, Harrow School. 



I. A scheme of work in science at a Public School must allow for the special 

 features which obtain normally there as compared with the conditions at many other 

 secondary schools. The peculiar features which affect the science scheme are that 

 (1) practically all the boys come from a particular class of preparatory school ; (2) 

 their age at entrance is just under fourteen ; (3) they may join the school over a wide 

 range of Forms ; (4) they may remain till they are eighteen and a half years old. 



The terminology of Forms varies so much at different schools that it is convenient 

 to regard the school as divided into five blocks, A, B, C, D, E — A containing the upper 

 school, B and C the middle school, and D and E the lowest Forms. The ablest boys 

 are expected to join the school in C, the less able in D, and the worst (intellectually) 

 inE. 



Roughly, the majority of Block A corresponds to a post-matriculation stage, and 

 the rest to a pre-matriculation stage. The latter are entirely concerned with their 

 general education, but the former in the lower forms of Block A are beginning a semi- 

 specialisation in groups of subjects which will culminate at the top in completely 

 specialised or even vocationalised work. 



' Science for All ' constitutes an essential part of general education ; therefore it 

 must be compulsory where it will embrace the greatest number of boys for a sufficient 

 portion of their time-table. This is best achieved by making it compulsory in 

 Block C and Upper D, equally for Classical and Modern sides when these exist in this 

 part of the school. There is no difficulty about this or the other suggestions put 

 forward when the ultimate school authority is sympathetic ; they are possible at any 

 Public School, but they may not be desired by those in power. 



Compulsory science in C and Upper D, however, may not secure the ablest boys for 

 a sufficient length of time, as they may pass into B very quickly. This can be corrected 

 by making science compulsory for a minimum number of terms — i.e. a boy passing 

 quickly into B must continue science in B until he has completed the science comprised 

 in the general education. 



A. Science in A will comprise science specialists. 



B. Science in B should be alternative with other subjects for boys who have 

 completed the compulsory ' Science for All.' The boys taking science will then have 

 completed the general courses and will begin a formal study of science. They should 

 give not less than eight hours per week to the subject. 



The alternative subjects for those boys in B who do not take science must be 

 decided by each school for itself. There is obviously one main consideration for a 



• Reprinted from the 1917 Report with modification suggested by the writers. 



