October 13, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



521 



5. Representative Plants. — The phyla; im- 

 portant orders, families and genera; typical 

 economics and ornamentals. 



In all of the trips the students are encour- 

 aged to note any plants that are unknown to 

 them. These are identified and listed ; the last 

 pages of the field notebook are utilized for this 

 reference list of common plants. By this 

 method, in the course of the year, the students 

 learn the names of practically all the common 

 plants of the region. As Clute cogently states, 



. . . the identification of plants is the only phase 

 of botany in which the general public is inter- 

 ested; it is frequently the only part of botany in 

 * which the pupil is interested ; and it is certainly 

 the only part of botany that he follows up after 

 he has left school. Doubtless every teacher has 

 remarked the surprise of pupils when they dis- 

 cover that botany is not chiefly concerned with 

 the names of plants. 



In any study, however, we can not do much 

 without knowing the names of the objects with 

 which we deal. Possibly there would be a much 

 larger percentage of the people permanently in- 

 terested in botany if our school courses early took 

 cognizance of the desire for the names of things. 6 



At the beginning of the trip each student is 

 provided with a typewritten or mimeographed 

 outline which contains the essential topics, 

 questions and directions for the trip. The 

 topics and questions are numbered consecu- 

 tively on the sheets, throughout the year, and 

 the student numbers the paragraphs of his 

 record to correspond with those of the outline. 

 Inasmuch as the essential purpose of the trip 

 is to strongly emphasize individual observa- 

 tions and first-hand familiarity with field 

 material, the topics and questions are specif- 

 ically planned and phrased with this object in 

 view. 



It is the practise of the teacher to devote a 

 period of ten or fifteen minutes, early in the 

 course of the trip, to a detailed explanation of 

 the outline, so that every student knows exactly 

 the character of the observations and studies 

 to be made. At this time any questions are 

 answered, individual assignments made, and 



b Clute, W. N., ' ' Teaching the Names of Ani- 

 mals and Plants," School Beview, Vol. 15, 1907 

 (June), pp. 463-66. 



every effort made to have the plan for the day 

 thoroughly understood. This is a matter of 

 great importance, as much time can be wasted 

 through students not knowing exactly what is 

 expected of them. 



At this point it may be stated that each field 

 trip is definitely anticipated in the lecture 

 and recitation work, and much of the mate- 

 rial and observations resulting from the trip 

 are immediately used in the succeeding pe- 

 riods. The field trip is an integral working 

 part of the course, and not merely a pleasant 

 adjunct. 



Some teachers utilize a somewhat less formal 

 type of trip, 7 but it has been the writer's ex- 

 perience that the scientific results of an excur- 

 sion are invariably in direct proportion to the 

 fullness and precision of the outline. 



An essential part of the equipment of each 

 student is the field notebook. This is a small 

 book, 3J by 5 inches, with durable board covers 

 and ordinary record ruling. In this book all 

 of the original field notes and records are 

 made, usually in pencil, and following the out- 

 line supplied at the beginning of each trip. 

 The student numbers the pages consecutively, 

 and the records appear in chronological se- 

 quence. At the end of the course a simple 

 index is prepared by the student, listing the 

 trips by subjects and places, and referring to 

 the numbered pages of the book. The index 

 is written on the first few pages of the book, 

 which are left vacant for that purpose. 



Much attention is given to the field notes 

 as the record of the student's individual ob- 

 servations. A concise, simple style is encour- 

 aged. Technical terms are used when neces- 

 sary, in a normal way, with no effort either to 

 evade or to exaggerate their importance. 

 Simple outline sketches, sections, profiles, dia- 

 grams and maps are used wherever they have 



i Clute, W. N., ' ' Making Botany Attractive, ' ' 

 School Beview, Vol. 17, 1909 (Feb.), pp. 97-98. 

 ' ' Field trips are frequent, even in cold weather. 

 Some trips are simply in quest of material and are 

 made without an outline. Pupils are required to 

 collect their own material and to note its relation 

 to its surroundings and habitat. The trips with 

 outlines are for the study of some phase of botany 

 that can not well be studied indoors. ' ' 



