180 
EIGHTH REPORT. 
LABORATORY WORK IN BIOLOGY, ITS NATURE, CONDUCT 
AND VALUE* (ABSTRACT.) 
LOUIS MURBACH. 
Biology was introduced into high schools mostly at the instance of 
colleges when it was established in the higher institutions. First it 
was allowed, then required for college entrance and was naturally shaped 
after college work. Recently it is being held that biology should be 
taught in secondary schools in such a way as to be a part of their 
scheme of giving a more liberal education—to better realize his position 
in nature—to the youth who cannot hope to go to college. 
There is probably as much difference in the nature of laboratory work 
in biology as there are teachers teaching it, although at first thought 
there might not seem to be much difference so long as it is laboratory 
work. Being directed to find certain things in a specimen, and how 
they “look,” and what is their significance is one kind of laboratory 
work. It is still current in colleges and does less harm there than in 
the high school. It is a great way in advance of the older text-book 
method. The pupil becomes a verifier; if he ever attains to more he 
may thank some innate genius or change of environment. 
To begin with, then, specimens are to be placed in the hands of all 
pupils. Mere observations and descriptions of specimens is not a very 
enlivening work, but may be made more so by the introduction of ex¬ 
periments that bear on the nature of the specimens studied. It is as¬ 
sumed that both the observational work and experiments will be fol¬ 
lowed by reading and discussion. Study many specimens, at least in 
the way of comparison, but require only one or two to be drawn and 
described. So in experiments, there should be as many as can be done 
though only the principal one need be written out. Drawing the ap¬ 
paratus used in experiments is time put in that might be better em¬ 
ployed. Nearly half the course should be laboratory work, strictly 
considered. This would leave the other half to be divided between 
ecological or field work and book work, including the discussion or re¬ 
citation. 
Nearly half the time of any study, especially in the lower grade of 
the high school, should be for the training of the observation, manual 
dexterity, and the judgment. To further this end the work should be 
carefully graded and carefully worded. Only those things that are be¬ 
yond the pupil’s comprehension should be told him, and then in such 
a way that he will understand that it is not his own idea; and, what is 
of no less importance, he should be early taught how to express or to 
show in his record, what is his own observation or inference and what 
he has from the book or from his teacher. 
*Presented before Science Teaching Section of Mich. Academy of Science, March, 1906. 
