536 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 118. 



sity, referring to the lack of adequately 

 trained teachers for the best sort of science 

 work in the schools, said that a bungling or 

 half-hearted teacher will never be able to 

 produce satisfactorily prepared students, 

 whatever time or equipment he may have 

 at his disposal. The teacher who aims 

 chiefly to prepare pupils for examinations 

 will be equally unsuccessful. Examina- 

 tions will take care of themselves if we have 

 teachers whose primary aim is to teach 

 science, to infuse into the mind of the 

 pupil the scientific spirit. 



It is gratifying to know that some of our 

 normal school principals enter protest 

 against the disposition to offer science po- 

 sitions to even normal graduates, if their 

 special training for science teaching is in- 

 adequate. May it not come within the 

 province of this Association to enter similar 

 protest if necessary, aye more, to exercise 

 a mild though vigilant censorship over the 

 science work of the schools, and seek by 

 every reasonable measure to secure con- 

 stantly better results. 



We must be cautious about placing 

 biology among the exact sciences, or hold- 

 ing out unwarranted expectations as to the 

 infallibility of experimental results. This 

 may be all right in physics or inorganic 

 chemistry; it is unsafe in biological teaching. 

 The very fact that this is, preeminently the 

 living science, having to do with the occult 

 processes of' life, the most distinctive char- 

 acter of which is change, renders many 

 results in biological experimentation ex- 

 ceedingly capricious. Indeed this is one 

 of the very charms of the science. Nor is 

 its educational value any the less on this 

 account. 



Superintendent Henry P. Emerson, of 

 Buffalo, spoke on some of the practical 

 difficulties attending science work in the 

 lower grades of city schools. Nature study 

 lacks vitality unless it is begun early. A 

 canvass of the school children in a number 



of Buffalo schools a few years ago revealed 

 the fact that many of the pupils had never 

 seen a lake, a hill, or the Niagara River. 

 Hereafter every pupil in the fourth grade 

 is to have at least one excursion a year, 

 visiting some of the public works, the park 

 and the river front. In the high school, 

 excursion work has been a prominent 

 feature in the study of botany and geology 

 for the past twenty-five years, every 

 Saturday during warm weather being im- 

 proved systematically for the exploration 

 of the vicinity. It is only by such studies, 

 pursued in this manner, that the artificial 

 and mechanical element of school work 

 can be broken up. 



Mr. Arthur Gr. Clement, of the Regents' 

 office, said that in visiting over 175 schools 

 of this State last year he saw some good 

 science work even in our smaller villages 

 where the teacher is usually one from the 

 normal school. 



The Regents have their ideals in regard 

 to the teaching of science, but do not expect 

 to see them realized until schools are more 

 fully equipped. Accordingly the examina- 

 tions in science are prepared in view of the 

 conditions existing in the schools. It is 

 the intention, however, that the nature of 

 the questions shall indicate to some extent 

 the kind and method of teaching which 

 they hope to see gradually established in 

 the schools, and it is expected that teachers 

 will recognize these hints and act accord- 

 ingly- 



In zoology it is recommended to study a 

 single type in each branch in accordance 

 with laboratory methods. The order of 

 progress should be from the lower to the 

 higher, with constant attention to the in- 

 creasing complexity of structure and its 

 correlation with increasing differentiation 

 of function from branch to branch. If 

 properly done, this work will necessitate 

 observation, discrimination and comparison, 

 and it will impress the pupil with the idea 



