126 - NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [7:5— May, 1911 



The writer is well aware that much work in nature-study 

 has been open to just criticism because it has consisted simply of 

 book ; work, even in regions where material for observation is 

 easily available. In his own experience in supervision, the writer 

 has encountered this tendency as a common defect in nature 

 teaching. Under these circumstances, it may seem almost dan- 

 gerous to express the thoughts mentioned in this paper. But it 

 is not the wirter's intention to minimize the value of observation, 

 but simply to attempt to point out its true place, and merely to 

 hint at some of the larger and more vital problems which are 

 possible in nature-study. 



TIME ECONOMY AND TEACHING DEVICES 



By C. H. ROBISON, State Normal School, Upper Montclair, N. J. 



In anticipation of the busy September days, many teachers 

 often wish to make during the summer some leisurely prepara- 

 tions for observation work. So far as insect study is concerned, 

 their consciences are usually eased by accumulating a large mass 

 of more or less unsorted material in formaldehyde against the day 

 of destruction — euphemistically called "dissection". 



Having large numbers of students, whether in normal or high 

 school classes, necessitates the introduction of factory methods, 

 even at the risk of making the instruction seem machine-made 

 (not mechanical). Every teacher who has attempted to bring out 

 points of insect wing structure, especially by a comparative study 

 of different species, will recall what a quantity of material, often 

 collected with difficulty, and sometimes plentiful only at long in- 

 tervals, has been slashed and mangled in the pupils' vain efforts 

 to extract some frayed out under wings. Those of grasshoppers 

 (locusts), giant waterbugs and beetles are usually unfit for ob- 

 servation after the rough treatment of clumsy fingers. The in- 

 structor must repeatedly tell what the shape should be, or, neg- 

 lecting the rents and tears, make on the student's drawing an out- 

 line. For how very observant are young people of air bubbles, 

 rents, holes, and of other things they are supposed not to notice ! 



The writer has tried picking off a quantity of wings., and 

 keeping them in formaldehyde till needed. But even then the 

 students succeeded in mangling the material beyond recognition 

 in attempting to flatten out the folds of the wings of the locust 

 or waterbug, or to straighten out the joint of a beetle's flying 



