A MODERN QUEST FOR THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE. IN THE REALM OF TEACHING THE SECONDARY SCHOOL SCIENCES. BY HERBERT BROWNELL,

University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

At the 1917 meeting of the Central Association of Science and Mathematics Teachers a committee was continued to consider the question of "Science in the High School of Tomorrow." In SCHOOL SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS of June, 1917, this committee asked the assistance of all science teachers in the solution of certain named "problems," among which are to be noted:

A "unified" four-year course for secondary schools in contrast with "a train of specialized sciences."

"A unifying principle for such a course."

"The formulation of an aim, or aims, in the teaching of a unified science

"A minimum list of topics from each specialized science for incorporation into the course in introductory science." (Of these specialized sciences, seventeen are named by way of suggestion.)

In this further effort at the hands of this very competent committee, science teachers generally should be enough interested to offer suggestions as requested. Their assistance is invoked to the end that the continued search for this educational Philosopher's Stone may yield much in the teaching of secondary school sciences in the way of by-products, though it fail in its main purposes as set forth above.

Science teachers are wont to feel more or less indulgent in their discussions of the labors of those whose names are associated with the beginnings of chemistry as they sought to attain the transmutation of metals. We, too, feel ourselves rather superior in our greater enlightenment as we retell the story of the search for the Fountain of Perpetual Youth. We magnanimously allow that out of these efforts of alchemist and traveler have come much of progress in science and in civilization as byproducts of efforts made by them.

Out of discussions, now largely forgotten, in the meetings of science teachers, from numberless papers and published articles containing the results of efforts much like that proposed by this committee, it would seem at first thought that little of lasting value has ever come. Nevertheless, in a community of interests established and in a unification of effort for the solution of the common problems of teachers of science in secondary schools, there is, indeed, a promise of gain worth all the time and pains of the committee and of those who respond to its call for suggestions and assistance.

The writer desires in this connection to express the belief that much of the lack of complete success heretofore, of attempts to unify the secondary school sciences and the root of much of the failure charged against them, lies in choice of a unifying principle. It is, perhaps, somewhat trite to say that the personality and preparation of teachers, the varied experiences and different natures of pupils, and the widely different conditions under which instruction in science in high schools occurs, are all variable factors in a problem the solution of which can never be more than an approach to a constant. To ignore these variables in any choices of topics made from the differentiated secondary school sciences is to court failure in practice. The unifying element for beginners in science must ever be the human element. As such, the problem is ever a difficult one, and the solution of it impossible of reduction to any system free of weaknesses that threaten its destruction. College and university science teaching is expected to be scientific in its presentation, and "science for its own sake." But in elementary science teaching the facts, phenomena and theories are but material for the teaching of "folks." It is the difficult task of the high school teacher to know when and how to bring about a transition in the spirit and procedure of science teaching from the objective to the subjective, from the inductive to the deductive.

One of the chief products of long continued efforts through committees to attain better results in science teaching has been an ever enlarging recognition of the fact that in all diversities of subject matter and in all methods of instruction in the various science branches there is to be found, in teaching them to high school boys and girls, a real unity in the common interests and experiences of youth. One common aim and end in the teaching of them all is the attainment of a scientific attitude of mind and a scientific procedure in all affairs of life. To organize the teaching of secondary school sciences on any plan which does not recognize as fundamental such choices of subject matter as shall arouse in pupils a desire to know more, which fails to stimulate and direct aright such desires with largest effectiveness, is to fall far short of a possible goal. Perhaps nowhere in the educational system is there so great need of skilled teaching as in the secondary school sciences. Success or failure in training each generation of youth to become intelligent observers of their surroundings in the natural world, capable of interpreting and applying in a scientific way the facts of experiment and of

observation, requires as teachers those who can quicken and direct the thinking of pupils, and in the routine of laboratory and classroom can secure the formation of study habits making of these pupils lifelong students. The quest for such teachers in sufficient numbers for the public school service goes on unendingly—a search for a human agency whereby untrained minds may be helped to acquire much of scientific capabilities and powers through studies in elementary science. No set of outlines, no selection of topics from the various divisions of secondary school science, however wisely chosen and combined, can be a substitute for a teacher who guides and inspires, one competent primarily to teach folks as distinguished from teaching subject matter. Herein is the handicap of the specialist in any science, and reason for his inability oftentimes to make lifelong students out of his high school pupils. Not enough attention, by far, is being given by science committees and science organizations to a quest for competent teachers of high school sciences to fill ranks depleted season by season. It seems to be taken for granted that in some unexplained manner such teachers will spring up out of the ranks or "grow up," even as did Topsy. No mechanism of outlined topics, of text and of manual, will accomplish what is desired in elementary science teaching in the hands of indifferently prepared teachers.

However, with all this emphasis placed upon the aims of the beginning phases of science teaching, and of the procedure necessarily followed to accomplish these aims, what the committee proposes to undertake is none the less important. This is especially the case in view of the need of an orderly transition from a science teaching that seeks primarily to get classes of pupils "to want to know" the teachings of science, and able to formulate and solve their own particular problems in life by reason of their science studies, to those later and more advanced stages where knowledge is presented and tested according to accepted theories, regardless of whether or not it has for the student any considerable measure of interest, of personal experience, or of application to his daily round of life.

The writer believes that a most helpful contribution was made not so very long ago to what this committee has under consideration, at least so far as the beginning stages of secondary school science is concerned, in a Bulletin published by the Massachusetts State Board of Education on "The Teaching of General Science." It is a manual of fifty pages for use of the teachers

of this late arrival in the list of high school science subjects, and sets forth admirably the spirit and aims of elementary science teaching. It can be made to serve as a starting point for the labors of this committee.

CONTAINERS FOR INSECTS AND BIRDS TO BE USED FOR CLASS WORK.

BY HATTIE J. WAKEMAN,

Zoological Laboratory, University of Wisconsin.

Though dried insects and bird skins offer excellent material for laboratory study in general biology, entomology, and parasitology courses, the best specimens usually cannot be put in the hands of students because they will be injured by careless treatment. In this laboratory we have lately used two schemes which obviate this difficulty and permit the use of the most valuable specimens by elementary classes.

A

B

Figure 1

For insects a pasteboard box (Fig. 1) is made of appropriate size. This has a bottom of sheet pith, which receives the pin bearing the insect. Two sides and the top of the box are covered with sheet celluloid as glass plates and this allows students to examine the venation of wings and other details which require

the use of a hand lens. Ordinary insect pins will need to be cut off above the specimen in order to bring it close to the cover. The pith, pasteboard, and celluloid are firmly fastened together with passe partout, which also seals up the box and prevents the entrance of dermestids. If a drop of chloroform is placed in the box before it is closed, there need be no worry concerning the insect pests which so often destroy dried speci

mens.

Mr. A. H. Conrad, of the Crane High School, Chicago, devised an excellent method of preparing bird skins for class use (Fig. 2). Fine wires are threaded through the skin so that it can be fastened to corks in the ends of a glass tube of proper size to make a snug fit for the skin. A little chloroform is placed on the skin and the ends of the tube are sealed with passe partout.

Fig. 1. Insect box with two sides and top made of sheet celluloid or glass. A, entire box; B, section.

Fig. 2. Bird skin enclosed in glass tube for class work. A, entire preparation; B, section.

PHARMACY AS AN AMERICAN RED CROSS AID.

Pharmacy and the science of healing have played a large and invaluable part in the war, and the American Red Cross has made ample use of both in the service which it is rendering to humanity on behalf of the American people, whose steward it is. Essentially an agent of service, the Red Cross work originally was confined to hospitals, where the pharmacist and the surgeon worked hand in hand. Now that the scope of the Red Cross has taken in humanitarian efforts the feeding of the hungry, the clothing of the naked and the housing of the homeless-the pharmaceutical-surgical side has been more or less overlooked by the public, yet it is as important as ever. It means the saving of lives and the rehabilitation of society.

The extent of the pharmaceutical side of Red Cross service may be gleaned from the fact that during the last few months it has shipped overseas 231,000,000 surgical dressings; that every month 1,000,000 pounds sterilized gauze and 10,000 pounds of ether go "over there." To date, the Red Cross has sent 10,637,201 hospital garments and 8,203,120 packages of hospital supplies.

Further evidence is shown by the supply of drugs and chemicals the Red Cross has bought within the last few months: 1,101,000 Greeley units of strychnine and morphine sulphate; 120,000 pounds nitrate ammonium; 390,000 pounds ether;