The Nature-study Review: Devoted to All Phases of Nature-study in Elementary Schools, Volume 1

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M.A. Bigelow, 1905 - Natural history
 

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Page 6 - I doubt not but ye shall have more ado to drive our dullest and laziest youth, our stocks and stubs, from the infinite desire of such a happy nurture, than we have now to hale and drag our choicest and hopefullest wits to that asinine feast of sowthistles and brambles which is commonly set before them as all the food and entertainment of their tenderest and most docible age.
Page 17 - By this is meant, for the lower grades at least, "a simple observational study of common natural objects and processes for the sake of personal acquaintance with the things which appeal to human interest directly, and independently of relations to organized science...
Page 151 - ... specimen class lesson. Without much expenditure of time the teacher can note that this work has been honestly attempted to be done by each pupil. The lessons must be direct from Nature itself, but under the guidance of the teacher, who can save time in bringing the pupils to the point desired by his more matured experience.
Page 122 - ... week for how many years should be devoted to it? Resolved, That no less than one hour per week, divided into at least two periods, should be devoted, throughout the whole course below the high school, to the study of plants and animals ; that in this study no text book should be used, and that these observation lessons should, as far as possible, be made the basis of, or correlated with, work In language, drawing and literature.
Page 232 - This very pleasant and profitable way of gaining knowledge has been their principal occupation during the two or three years that they have been running about out of doors at home, and they should be encouraged and aided to extend their knowledge of the things in nature with which they are likely to come in daily contact throughout their lives.
Page 24 - ... strategic positions, as secured by types, should receive the same emphasis in the curriculum, as strategic positions in a physical way receive in warfare. As that idea is applied further, it will make us willing to omit, entirely, many topics that we now include, and do more intensive work on a few. In the third place, the leading questions that need to be answered under each type, or other topic, need to be clearly conceived in order to find a basis for selection of details. For instance, I...
Page 23 - Whatever cannot be shown to have a plain relation to some real need of life, whether it be aesthetic, ethical, or utilitarian in the narrower sense. 2. Whatever is not reasonably within the child's comprehension. 3. Whatever is unlikely to appeal to his interest; unless it is positively demanded for the first very weighty reason. 4. Whatever topics and details are so isolated or irrelevant that they fail to...
Page 24 - ... agreed on twenty-two little points about the cat which they desired to teach, as a topic in nature study. But until the principal questions which they had to answer in regard to the cat were known, to which these many facts might be the answer, their subject-matter was absolutely unorganized, and they were unprepared to give the instruction. Now, our main interest in cats is as pets, and if we set out to learn (i) to what extent cats can provide for themselves, and (2) therefore to what extent...
Page 114 - ... able to see the murder of the drones by their sisters. But the children should understand that this killing of the drones is necessary for the preservation of the colony, as the workers cannot store enough honey to keep the colony alive during the winter if the drones were allowed to go on feeding. If you see the worker bees fighting, it means that robbers are attempting to get at the stores of the observation hive. The entrance to the hive should at once be contracted by placing a block of wood...
Page 23 - Size, jy2 inches long; 4 inches widest part. Shape, somewhat oval — widest at top. Lobes, alternate ; long pointed, 10 lobes on leaf. Indentation, 10 indentations, rounded, deep, alternate. Petiole, short, thick, dark brown, mid vein thinner near top of leaf. Veins, alternate, thin, not many. Color, dark brown, near mid vein. What a mass of worthless matter in such instruction ! Much of it so valueless that there is no pretense of reviewing it next day ; it is even unnecessary for examinations....

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