LESSONS

IN

NATURAL SCIENCE.

RULE OF THE BOARD.

The course of instruction in Natural Science herewith adopted shall be taught in oral lessons, one hour being set apart on Wednesday afternoon of each week for the purposes of said instruction.

REMARKS ON THE METHOD OF TEACHING THIS SYLLABUS.

1. The teacher must not consider herself required to go over all the topics in any given quarter. She must not attempt to do any more than she can do in a proper manner. If it happens that only the first two or three topics are all that can be dealt with profitably, the teacher must not allow herself to undertake any more.

2. In case the teacher finds that the topics of any given quarter are not arranged in such an order that she can take them up to the best advantage, she is at liberty to change that order; but she must not proceed to the work of a new quarter or to any portion of it until she has first given ten weekly lessons on the quarter's work she has begun.

3. No more than ten weekly lessons should be given on the work laid down for a quarter. When these have been given, proceed to the work of the next quarter, whether the topics of the quarter in hand have all been considered, or only a very small portion of them.

Remark.

The course is arranged with reference to method rather than quantity or exhaustiveness. If only one topic is thoroughly discussed in each quarter of the first year, some very important

ideas will be gained of the science of botany. In the fourth year of the course, the pupil will come round to the subject again and can deepen his insight into the methods of studying the world of plants, learn the general outline of classification adopted, and train his observing powers. When he comes to the sixth year of the course, he will again touch upon the subject in such a manner as to see the province this subject occupies in the world of nature, and its general bearings upon other fields of investigation.

The question will be asked: Why not reduce the number of topics under a given subject to the number that can be actually discussed by the teacher?

The answer is: 1) A selection of topics from a comparatively full enumeration of them is best left to the individual teacher. 2) The exact number of topics that can be profitably discussed by teachers will vary with their capacities; moreover, it will vary from year to year as teachers become familiar with the course; hence it is necessary to have a variety and to have topics enough for the most rapid classes. 3) It is, moreover, important to keep constantly before the teacher a full outline of the subject so a to prevent the (very common) tendency to treat a theme in its narrow application only and to omit its general bearings.

General Plan of the Course.

It will be observed that in the eight years' course there is a spiral movement, or recurrence of the same topics: 1) The subjects of Natural Science, a) the plant, b) the animal, c) the physical elements and mechanical powers-constitutes a primary course of three years; so that even those who receive the minimum of school education shall acquire some insight into the elements and instrumentalities which play so important a part in the industrial age in which they live. 2) In the fourth fifth and sixth years these subjects of Natural Science are all taken up again in a second course and much more scientifically developed : a) Botany, its method and practical application; b) Zoology and Human Physiology; c) motion and force in masses, in particles, and as applied in the mechanical powers; d) Astronomy (forming a transition to the grammar school course in Physical Geography); five years is the average attendance on our schools;

hence the average pupil will get two courses in Natural Science. 3) In the seventh and eighth years of the district schools a third course in Natural Science is given, in which begin to appear more clearly in outline the several sciences. a) Under Natural History or organic nature: Geology, Meteorology, Botany, Zoology, Ethnology. b) Under Natural Philosophy, or Physics: Matter, force and motion, machinery, molecular forces and instruments involving their application.

4. In teaching Natural Science it is of the greatest importance to select typical objects or facts; i. e. objects or phenomena that are types of a large class by reason of the fact that they manifest all of the chief properties or attributes common to the other individuals of the class, and at the same time manifest them in the most obvious manner. It would not do, for instance, to select an object in which the properties to be illustrated were not well developed, nor an object with which the pupils were not familiar.

5. Every lesson should be given in such a way as to draw out the perceptive powers of the pupil by leading him to reflect on what he sees, or to analyze the object before him. It is at first thought strange—although it is true-that powers of observation are to be strengthened only by teaching the pupil to think upon what he sees. The process is one of division (analysis) and classification, and secondly of tracing causal relations: hence the questions most frequent are: "What qualities or properties has this object (exhibiting the same)? What separate actions or movements form the steps or stages in its process? What other objects and processes have the same? (classification). What relation of this object or phenomenon to others, whether as to cause and effect, or as to means and end?"

6. How to conduct a lesson; a) Prepare yourself beforehand on the subject of the lesson of the week, fixing in your mind exactly what subjects you will bring up, just what definitions and illustrations you will give or draw out of the class. All must be marked and written down in the form of a synopsis. board is the most valuable appliance in oral lessons be written the technical words discussed, the classification of the knowledge brought out in the recitation, and, whenever possible, illustrative drawings. b) Pains should be taken to select pas

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sages from the reference books, or from other books illustrative of the subject under discussion, to be read to the class with explanation and conversation. c) Wherever the subject is of such a nature as to allow of it, the teacher should bring in real objects illustrative of it and encourage the children to do the same. d) But more stress should be laid on a direct appeal to their experience, encouraging them to describe what they have seen and heard, and arousing habits of reflection, and enabling the pupil to acquire a good command of language. e) Great care must be taken by the teacher not to burden the pupil with too many new technical phrases at a time, nor to fall into the opposite error of using only the loose common vocabulary of ordinary life which lacks scientific precision.

7. How to use the Reference Books:

a) In the first course, extending through the eighth, seventh and sixth grades, Hooker's Child's Book of Nature should be followed for the most part, with such hints as to method as are to be gained from a study of Calkin's Primary Object Lessons. EIGHTH GRADE. First quarter; Study and use such portions of the first ten chapters of Hooker's Part I. as you can make available. Second quarter: Chapter XI to XXI of the same book. Third quarter: Chapters XXII to XXVIII. Fourth quarter Chapters XXIX to XXXIII. SEVENTH GRADE. First quarter: Chapters I to VII of Hooker's Part II. Second quarter: Chapters VIII to XVIII. Third quarter: Chapters XIX to XXV. Fourth quarter: Chapters XXVI to XXXIII. SIXTH GRADE. First quarter: Chapters I to X of Hooker's Part III. Second quarter: Chapters XI to XVIII. Third quarter: Chapters XIX to XXXI. Fourth quarter: Chapters XXXII to XXXV. Calkin's Object Lessons, pp. 15 to 50, should be studied in the eighth grade; pp. 401 to 431 will be of great service in the seventh grade, and the same book, pp. 139 to 190 and pp. 339 to 400 will be of equal service in the sixth grade.

b) In the second course, extending through the fifth, fourth and third grades, Youmans' First Book of Botany should be studied for method and material for the lessons given in the first quarter of the FIFTH GRADE. Only a few selections can be