10 



(b) Shade a portion of a vigorously growing leaf by covering with 

 a piece of pasteboard. Thepasteboard maybe held in place bypins passed 

 vertically through it and the leaf, the small wounds made by the pins 

 not producing any injurious effects. At the end of two or three days 

 remove pasteboard and note results. Expose the previously covered 

 portion to the action of light for a few days and note results. In the 

 case of young children interest may be added by cutting the shading 

 pasteboard into various patterns. 



2. To show that leaf green is necessary to the growth of the plant. 

 Continue experiment one (a) for two or three weeks. Note differ- 

 ences in size and vigor of plants. 



3. To show effect of soil moisture upon plants. 



Take vigorous seedlings of Indian corn, beans, peas or any rapidly 

 growing plant and place in pots. Subject one plant to drought by 

 withholding moisture from it, give to the other abundant water, being 

 careful, however, not to drown the plant. Note the results at the end 

 of one, two, three and four weeks. 



These suggestions are made not as laboratory directions, but merely 

 as indications to the honest teacher, of methods by which information 

 may be secured from nature itself without the intervention of text 

 books. Suggestions which it is hoped will lead the teacher to find new 

 meaning in that very common thing, the foliage leaf, and through this 

 to give him the power to advance to a clearer and fuller interpretation 

 of the life about him. 



