Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/312

 [Vol. v.. No. 114.

��PERIPATETIC SCIENCE TEACHING. A VERY inlciesting expcdmont is Iwiiig tried in Birminghnm. by way of showing with what good results acienee can be taught to quite young children by a leather wlm goes Troiu school to school: »i>d has his apparatus carried around with him. There is something very Arousing to an American — it would be hard to any exactly why — in the description given in Nature of a ■ strong youtli ' dragging through the city his ■ hand-cart ' laden with apparntus, and. vhen he reaches a school, unpacking it, spreading it out oh a table, and retiring at the moment the demonstrator Bte|)8 in. But after enjoying the local color of the picture, it may be well to ask ourselves whether the plan is not a good one, and deserving of imitation in our own public schools. In this country, no form of science -teaching in introduced, as a general thing, below the high school. The Birmingham course is given to childien of from ten to thirteen years of age. Unc lesson fort- nightly, of about forty minutes' duration, is given in the fif^h and liigher standards in each school, between the visits of the science- demonstrator, at leufrt one lesson is given to the class by the teachers of each school (as a rnle. by a teacher who was present at the de- monstrator's lesson, and who took full notes of it), and a written examination in the subjeet- matter of the lesson is also lield. Most of the apparatus is of the simplest form, and so made that it can be taken to pieces, and examined in detail, by the children. Much of it Mr. Harrison has himself designed and had made for the puriMJse. His plan is to prepare work- ing-models, pictures, and diagrams of pumps. for instance : to have the apparatus arranged on the table : and to draw from Uie boys what they know about [lumps before telling them any thing. He Iben shows them the working of the machine, explains its principle, and re- minds them of other instances in which they have seen the same principle at work. Before be comes to them again, the regular teacher goes over the ground once more ; and then the boTs write out what they have learned, and

��make drawings of the objei'ts from memory. Some of the pagiers which we have seen showed 1 a remarkable degree of intelligent comprehen- sion : and one of the most interesting cases in the education department of the London health I c.\l]ibition was that which contained a set of | mi'di.inical apparatus made by the boys at home with no better tool than a j.ick-knife.

Tlic course extends over three yeara. For the last year, the syllabus covers the mechan- ical ])Owei's. liquid pressure, the parallelogram of forces, and the parallelt^ram of velocities. The second year is devoted to food, and to the wanning, cleaning, and ventilation of the dwelling. The topics discussed in the eighteen lectures of the first year are not those which we should expect to tind in a course on me- chanics. The second lecture, for instance, ia devoted to the human iKxIy, its structure, and the use of the microsco))e : and on succeeding days are discussoil oxygen, hydrogen, nitro- gen, amjloids, albuminoids; the compositiou of milk, eggs, etc. ; wool as a material for, clothing \ hard and soft waler : the skin ; and soap and soda. i

There are two distinct features in the Bir- mingham plan whose merits neeii to lie dis- cussed separately. — teaching science by means of a single teacher and set of appliances for several schools, and teaching it to very young children. With regard to the latter questiOD, we shall have something to say at another lime: but, whatever one may think about teasing children ten years old with such hard things as amyloids and albuminoids, there is * no doubt, that, if it is to be done at all, it can , be done best by a peripatetic teacher. Good ' science-teachers do not grow on every bush ; and, when one has been found, it is a pity not to use him with as great economy as possible. Few of the teachers now in grammar-schools'] have received any scientilic instruction : still d less have they been able to acquire the metb> 1 ods. which are far more important than th« I facts. The attempt to teach the teachers m masse would probably not be very succesBful. There are comparatively few gi-owu people who 1 CUM go back to the child's delight in asking '

�� �