Handbook Of Nature Study - For Teachers And Pupils In Elementary Schools

HANDBOOK OF NATURE STUDY HANDBOOK OF NATURE STUDY OR TEACHERS AND PUPILS IN ELEMBNITARY SCHOOLS - 1898 - PREFACE - THE st udy of nature with a view to understand the relatio ls of p . la nt and animal life to the welfare and happiness of inan, needs no justification in this age of scientific agriculture and applied sciences. All our most progressive teachers agree that Elementary Science or Nature Study should have a place on the programme of every graded and ungraded school in the land. Purpose of this book. - The writer has attempted to point out some of the material which nay be made the basis of profitable lessons in Nature Study, and he has endeavored to show how this material inay be made available and what the pupils may be taught about it. Plan of the book. - A glance at the contents of the different cllapters will show that the writer has tried to learn directly froin nature, and he would strongly urge teachers and pupils to attend natures own school in fields and forests, and at lakes and streams. Those happy children who can spend their vacatioi s outdoors do not confine their. attention to one class of objects and phenomena. TfThile on a ramble through the woods they liaturally observe the birds, the insects, the trees, shrubs, and flowers of the season and a similar statement is true of lakes and rivers, of swailiy, inarsh, and 1neadolv. v.. I have, therefore, arranged the subject-matter according to seasons and life communities, under such chapters as Life in and near the Water in Summer, The Prairie in Late Summer, The TIToods in their Autumn o l h e , et c . An effort has been made throughout the book to show that all nature is one. Scientific classification has not been excluded, but has been kept in the background, because the child must study the concrete before he can make abstractions. Many of our high school and college students take but a limited interest in Botany and Zoology, because they possess almost nothing of what may be called common knowledge about the life around us. How can we expect that these youilg pupils should suddenly be interested in the microscopic structure of plants and animals, which they have always passed by with stupid indifference or for what possible reason should scientific systematization attract them, when they know nothing about the life history of the trees in their yards and of the birds that nest on them This little volume is, however, specially intended to point out work for those children whose school years close with the common school course. Their education must remain elementary, but it should, neverthelessj be broad and thorough. The writer does not believe that the physical sciences should be excluded from our common schools they should receive special attention during the last or the last two school years, but it has not been deemed advisable to include much of them in this volume. , Sztggestions to teucl ers and parents. - 111 order to do successfully some of the work suggested and outlined, it is not necessary to have taken a course in Botany, Zoology, or Geology. You can do the work if you have an earnest desire to do it. The attention of the children should be directed to the subject of the lesson some time before the lesson is given. For this purpose teachers should consult the footnotes and the paragraph on the subject under consideration, and plan their work at least a few weeks in advance...