34 INTRODUCTION 



mental machine instead of letting it run to waste. All the 

 good thinking that has ever been done would have amounted 

 to little except that a few good thinkers took notes. 



So the science notebook is really one of the valuable 

 opportunities of high school life, and one of the least 

 appreciated. The value of your notes does not depend 

 upon your reading them again. That may have little to do 

 with it. The value lies in the process of making them, 

 and making them clear-cut and honest expressions of your 

 own observations and conclusions ; it lies in fixing clearly 

 in mind ideas which otherwise would be lost ; it lies in 

 training you in careful expression. The drawings also 

 serve these purposes. Drawing enforces accuracy of obser- 

 vation ; it will lead you to notice many things which other- 

 wise you would overlook. 



ii. The Textbook. — After all that has been said about 

 making observations, and about thinking, and about 

 taking notes and making drawings, it may seem to you 

 that the study of this book is not going to be a very im- 

 portant part of the course. That is about right. The 

 book is perhaps the least important part of the course, and 

 yet it is a necessary part. It is necessary because your 

 time is so limited. The great facts about plants are to be 

 learned, and you can learn but few of them by your labora- 

 tory work alone. So you will turn to the book. The book 

 is for information. Your laboratory work is not so much 

 to give you information as it is to show you how to get 

 information, how to get it without books and without 

 being told. The laboratory is principally for learning the 

 method of science, while books principally give us the facts 

 of science. 



