PHYSICAL SCIENCE PHASE OF NATURE STUDY
INSTRUCTIONS AND GENERAL METHOD
The preceding portions of this Manual dealt with living things. There is another phase of Nature Study which has a more direct relation to the physical sciences, Chemistry and Physics, two subjects that are essentially experimental in their methods.
Although the lessons that follow are grouped in one portion of this book, the teacher should understand that he is to introduce them into his work as the occasion demands. They may be used to throw light on other parts of the school work. The experimental method is somewhat advanced for young children, hence no lessons are outlined for Forms I and II. In ungraded schools, Forms III and IV may be combined for the subject. It will be found most convenient to take this portion of the Nature Study during the winter months.
VALUE OF SUCH LESSONS
1. They are interesting, hence there is attention. The senses must be alert, hence pupils are trained to observe accurately.
2. After the experiment comes the inference, hence reasoning powers are developed.
3. They enable the teacher to make exceedingly concrete some very difficult abstract principles.
4. They can be correlated with a large number of other subjects and made to have a beneficial influence on the whole of the school work.
5. The great advance that is being made in all useful inventions to-day is largely due to the study of the physical sciences. Many boys and girls (seventy-five per cent.) never attend the High School. The Elementary School owes them a taste at least of these sciences that have such a bearing on their lives, that have surrounded them with so many mechanical contrivances for their comfort and convenience, and that explain so many common natural phenomena. Give a boy a taste for experimental science, and there is some chance that after leaving school he will not throw aside his studies to subsist intellectually on the newspaper, but that he will continue to investigate for himself, and make himself a well-informed man, an influential man in his section. The Elementary School must aim at fitting the boys and girls for life.
6. The advent of the experiment marks the downfall of superstition, prejudice, and reliance on authority and tradition. To lead a child to think for himself is a great achievement.
7. The use of the experiment in gaining knowledge will result in a cautiousness in accepting statements and making decisions.
CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH EXPERIMENTS SHOULD BE PERFORMED
1. They should be introduced into the school work naturally, as answers to questions which arise either in the regular course of the work or from suggestions made by the teacher at appropriate times.
2. As far as possible, the pupils should assist in performing the experiment. In small rural schools the scarcity of apparatus will necessitate the teacher's doing most of the work. In Form V classes and Continuation Schools the pupils may do the experiments individually.
3. The bearing of an experiment is not always evident; the teacher must be ready with judicious questions to lead the class to the proper conclusions.
4. The pupils must be acquainted with all the apparatus used. They must know what the teacher is doing and must be near enough to see the result.
5. A problem may be suggested, and a few days allowed for the pupils to think out a means of solution. If they invent and make their own apparatus, so much the better.
6. Whenever possible, the experiment should be applied to some natural phenomenon or everyday occurrence.
CORRELATIONS OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE PHASE
Geography.—The value of Physical Science in the Elementary School is largely due to the light it throws on geographical data. Numerous examples will appear in the succeeding pages.
Hygiene.—Experiments in carbon dioxide, oxygen, air, water, sound, and light, are absolutely necessary, if the children are to grasp with any degree of clearness the principles of respiration and ventilation, and the phenomena of hearing and seeing.
Manual Training.—Many pieces of apparatus may be made by the boys in their work with wood or iron. Some of the elementary principles of chemistry enable the girls to do their cooking intelligently. A knowledge of some of the principles of machines will help the pupils to understand the tools they may use in any employment.
Drawing.—Careful drawing of the apparatus used helps to fix the experiment in the mind and at the same time gives practice in art.
Composition.—Pupils must have ideas before they can write. The description of the experiment will make a good composition exercise, oral or written.