INTBODUCTOBY. ▼ 



the comparing, relating, judging and expressing of thoughts. 

 Teaching to observe includes training the mind how to make 

 the best use of what the senses bring to it. 



The expression of the steps of an investigation is not confined to 

 speech or writing. In the best nature-study lessons all practicable 

 means of expression are employed — drawing, modelling, making 

 and gesture, as well as oral and writteii statements. So there is 

 physical as well as mental training. A good nature-study lesson 

 may be based on the replacing of a broken window-pane or the 

 repairing of a door-lock, the digging of a drain or the cooking of a 

 meal. The neighboring farm or the garden attached to a school, 

 fortunate enough to have one, will be most fruitful of excellent 

 subjects for nature-lessons in great variety. 



Method as Important as Matter. — From what is stated, 

 one can easily- see that Nature-study is rather a method than a 

 subject, and, although it, deals largely with plants, insects, birds, 

 and changes produced in the air and on the surface of the earth 

 by natural forces, yet it does not exclude anything which the child 

 can observe and reason about. Its spirit may be applied to a 

 greater or less extent to the other, subjects of the school pro^ 

 gramme, especially to geography and to physiology. To the 

 arithmetic class, the teacher may, for. example, give the problem : 

 "In a pile of wood i6ft. long 4ft. wide and 6ft. high how many 

 cords ?" Something of the nature-study quality is given to the pro- 

 blem when the teacher says : " There is a pile of wood in the yard, 

 lake your rulers, measure it, and calculate how many cords there 

 are in it." 



In the real nature-study exercise the teacher is more anxious 

 about the way the pupils observe, and the way they reason about 

 what they observe, than about the infprmation obtained. But life is 

 too short to learn all that needs to be known by, the discovery 

 method. The wise teacher judiciously c;ombines information with 

 investigation. In many lessons a question will arise, the answer to 

 which the pupils have not the means of discovering or which would 

 take too much time to discover. Here the lesson may stop ; but 

 often the necessary information may be supplied and then the 

 investigation be resumed. 



