mnmmmmmm iucatii thfi •*Munson at^M FI^ sttmmmmsmtmm Hate (Stollt^t of Agriculture At (flocnell Uninecaitg 3tt)aca. S. 1. Cornell University Library QH 51.M92 Education througii nature study, founda« 3 1924 000 018 634 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924000018634 EDUCATION THROUGH NATURE STUDY FOUNDATIONS AND METHOD BY JOHN P. MUNSON, Ph.D. University of Chicago; B.S.^ M.S. University of Wisconsin; Ph,B, Va/f; Department of Biology^ Washington State Normal School NEW YORK AND CHICAGO E. L. KELLOGG & CO. 1 Copyright, 1903, b^ E. L. KELLOGG & CO. New York, (^ ZO 16- (ffii^ttbetl) SlBcrgsbttl illnneon PREFACE This work is the result of a course of lectures deliv- ered by the author on Methods of Science-teaching. It owes its form and content, first, to impressions con- cerning the scope and character of current nature- study literature; and second, to impressions regarding the general scientific preparation of teachers who have been under his instruction and supervision in institute, normal school, and normal training-school work. Current nature-study literature, dealing chiefly with the facts of nature study, fails to aid the teacher in two important difficulties where help seems to be most needed, namely: (i) many teachers fail to grasp the real significance and importance of the subject; (2) they do not know how to handle the subject,—how to begin, how to continue, and how to end the study of an object. This book is an attempt to remove those difficulties. The facts of natural science are so numerous that they cannot be condensed into a small volume. Be- sides, even a complete catalogue of all the facts of nature cannot be substituted for a proper study of nature itself. Nature study in book form is a contradiction in terms. The "book of nature" has its own message to give to the inquiring mind; and this message can be communicated only by nature itself. Interpreters have thus far been rather unsuccessfully employed, because we have not been able to become as little 6 Preface children, asking their own mother their own questions in their own language. The problem of education is, at bottom, the biologi- cal problem of growth and development. There is no one law which better expresses the fundamental factors in development than that of "action and reaction." This excludes the notion of isolation; and emphasizes the fact of mutual interdependence; the conception of matter and motion; the kinetic and the static elements in nature, and the organic imity of the world. With our advances in sciences, especially the biologi- cal sciences, we are able now, better than ever before, to appreciate the supreme importance of the physical basis of our intellectual Ufe. Strange to say, it is only recently that the human mind has begim to reahze that things grow; and that education is growth, modi- fied and sustained by external influences. With the marked shifting of psychology, both in matter and method, which biological research has made necessary; with the accumulating results of comparative philology and anthropology, showing the origin and development of language, both in the indi- vidual and in the race, to be dependent on physical and biological factors; with the ever-increasing com- plexity of social conditions accompanying social and industrial evolution, making the environment of children more and more artificial and abnormal, it may be safe to predict that nature study, as a branch of school work, will receive even greater attention than it now does. It is now fifteen years since I first pubhshed an outhne for teaching nature study in the grades. The method here presented is the result of a natural selec- tion resulting from my experience in all grades of school work and with all kinds of pupils. I have been convinced by this experience that a good method of Preface 7 teaching nature study must be based on the more fundamental laws of life and development, rather than on the individual tastes of him who applies it. These individual Hkes and dishkes are transient phases, fluctuating and varying, and apt to lead to those extremes which usually end in a reaction. Such extremes are, therefore, to be avoided. We are to base our method of teaching nature study neither upon the economic value of the subject nor upon the purely emotional or sentimental aspect of it. We are not to make it so practical as to render it impracticable; nor so sentimental as to make it silly. That would be an unfortunate tendency in our schools, if children should be taught to know the busy bee, only to deter- mine how many pounds of honey it can produce, and how much hard cash, reckoned in dollars and cents, it is worth to us. Groveling utilitarianism, like absurd sentimentaHsm, are passing phases of extremes in edu- cation that cannot endure. We need knowledge, united with common sense, to control these two ex- tremes of civilized life. Knowledge wedded to common sense, yielding that intellectual honesty which contact with nature promotes, must find the golden mean between erratic extremes. Considering that the majority of public-school children do not pnter the high school, there is Uttle danger, perhaps, of making the work too scientific. AU the science they are able to master will not hurt them any, as some teachers seem to fear. Much is being said now about child study and child interest. May not some attention to the proper method of studying objects enable us better to understand the child? From what we already know of these obscure subjects, it seems reasonable to assume that methods n teaching should be such that the fullest exercise of all the pupil's powers is secured, and the natural results of those activities realized. 8 Preface It is believed that when the foundations of nature study are understood, and when the aims to be at- tained have become clearly defined in the teacher's mind, a method will be developed by the thinking teacher. Such a method must be the true method so far as that particular teacher is concerned. In submitting this rather formal special method of treating nature study in the grades, it is not intended to instruct those who have a satisfactory method of their own; but, rather, to assist those who feel that they have not yet been able to see their way clear amid such an array of objects and phenomena as those with which nature study deals. A sense of fatigu- ing bewilderment is often felt by the inexperienced teacher. This doubtless must always be the case so long as both the method and the matter of nature study are chaotic. Uniformity and law must be discovered here as elsewhere. J. P. MUNSON. Washington State Normal School. TABLE OF COMTENTS PAGE Preface 5 PART I FOUNDATIONS AND METHOD OF NATURE STUDY CHAPTER I Section I. 1. Introduction (historical) 19 2. Meaning of the Back-to-Nature Movement 22 3. Science and Culture 24 Section II. Stages in Human Culture 26 li. Economic Stages 26 1. The Hunting Stage 26 2. The Fishing Stage 27 3. The Pastoral Stage 27 4. The Agricultural Stage 27 5. The Industrial Stage 28 b. Probable Causes of the Back-to-nature Movement in Education 29 CHAPTER II Section III. General Aims of Nature Study 33 J. Ideals and Cultvire in Nature Study 35 2. The Senses in Nature Study 37 Section TV, Training of the Judgment and Imagination.. 40 1. The Judgment in Nature Study 40 2. The Imagination in Nature Study 42 Section V. The Esthetic and Ethical Function of Nature Study 45 1. The Beautiful in Nature Study 45 2. The Ethical Function of Nature Study 48 9 —————— 10 Table of Contents PAGE Section VI. Knowledge and Character-building 50 I. Nature Study and Character-building 50 J.. Knowledge Gained in Nature Study 52 Section VII. Expression and Generalization 54 1. Expression in Nature Study 54 2. Oral Expression 57 3. Generalization in Nature Study 58 CHAPTER III general methods Section VIII. Methods or Reasoning 66 1. The Deductive Method 66 2. The Inductive Method 67 3. The Inductive-Deductive Method 70 Section IX. General Methods of Teaching 72 1. The Discovery Method 72 2. The Investigation Method 73 3. The Thumb-and-rule Method 75 4. The Text-book and Recitation Method 77 5. The Laboratory Method 78 6. The Socratic Method. , 80 7. The Catechetical or Developmental Method 81 8. The Lecture or Telling Method 82 9. The Confirmation Method 83 Section X. Special Method of Teaching Naturl. Study. 84 Introduction 84 1. The Object 85 2. The Pupil 8s 3. The Method 86 TENTATIVE GENERALIZATIONS AND GUIDING PROPOSITIONS Section XI. Guide 93 1. Step I-X 92 2. Program for Step I. Seeing 93 3. Program for Step II. Discussion 93 4. Program for Step III. Comparing 93 5. Program for Step IV. Field Lesson 94 6. Program for Step V. Experimentation 94 7. Program for Step VI. Recitation 94 8. Program for Step VII. Supplementary Injorma- lion 95 9. Program for Step VIII. Representation 95 10. Program for Step IX. Written Expression 95 11. Program for Step X. Reading 95 ——— Table of Contents li CHAPTER IV SUGGESTIONS AMD COUKSE OH STUDY PAGE Section Xn. Suggestions to the Teacher no 1. On the Teacher's Preparation no 2. On Using tiie Guide no 3. The Distinctive Features of the Method in 4.