Various

“ Why does water rise in a pump? Do all bodies, large and small, fall equally fast? The principles which answer and explain such questions can be made so clear and evident to the mind of a pupil that he would almost fancy they must have been known from the first instead of having waited for the hard, earnest labor of intellectual giants. And science has gone on, and for us and for our pupils would still go on, only as accompanied with numerous mistakes and disappointments.
What method shall we adopt in the teaching of science? It must differ according to the age and capacity of the pupils. ”

“ Experiments should never be performed for mere show. Of two experiments which illustrate a fact equally well it is often best to select the most striking and brilliant one. The attention and interest of the child will be gained in this way when they would not be to so great an extent in any other. The point of the experiment, however, should never be lost sight of in attention to the merely wonderful in it. ”

“ The relation of the study of science to books on science should be considered. For the work done with pupils before they are given books to use for themselves, any attempt to follow a text book is to be deplored. The study of the properties of matter, for instance, would be a fearful and wonderful thing to set a class of little ones at as a beginning in scientific work. Just what matter, and force, and molecules, and atoms are may be well enough for the student who is old enough to begin to use a book, but they would be but dry husks to a younger child. ”

“ A nation is what its trades and manufactures--its inventions and discoveries--make it; and these depend on its trained scientific men. Boys become men. Their growing minds are waiting for what I urge you to offer. Science has never advanced without carrying practical civilization with it--but it has never truly advanced save by the use of the experimental method. ”

“ The attention cannot be divided--all parts of the change, all phases of the action, must be known, and to be known must be observed; while in other forms of lessons the attention may be diverted for a moment to return to the consideration of exactly what was being observed before. It goes without saying that in one case quick and accurate observation, a retentive memory, and the association of causes and effects follow, and that in the other they do not.
I advocate, therefore, the teaching of physical science in our schools--in all our schools. ”

“ Almost every man whose life has been spent in study has a store of facts which he discovered, and on which he built hopes of future greatness until he found out later that they were old to the knowledge of the world he lived in. ”

“ The student in mathematics experiences a feeling of growing strength and power when he finds, in algebra, that the formula he used in arithmetic in extracting a square root has grown in importance by leading indirectly to a theorem of which it is only one particular case--a theorem with a more definite proof, and a larger capability for use than he had thought possible. When he finds a still simpler proof for the binomial theorem in his study of the calculus, his feeling of increasing power and the desire for still greater results deepens and intensifies. ”

“ Physical science taught by the experimental method.
An experiment has been defined as a question put to Nature, a question asked in things rather than in words, and so conditioned that no uncertain answer can be given. Nature says that all matter gravitates, not in words, but in the swing of planets around the sun, and in the leap of the avalanche. And men have devised ingenious machines through which Nature may tell us the invariable laws of gravitation, and give some hint as to why it is true. ”

“ But now, when, by our achievements, commerce and industry are increased to gigantic proportions, when the remotest peoples are brought in ever closer communication with us, when the progress of the human race has become a mighty torrent, rushing onward with ever accelerating speed, we glory in the yet higher praise, "Well done, well done!" Under these circumstances, the question how a young man is best fitted for our profession has become one of increasing importance, and three methods have been proposed for its solution. ”

“ A long course of preliminary training--a thorough knowledge of what has been done in a given field already--a quick imagination--a genius for devising forms of apparatus which will enable him to work well under particular conditions in the most simple and effective way--the faculty of suspending judgment, and of seeing what happens, all that happens, and just how it happens--patience--caution--courage--quick judgment when a completed experiment presses for an explanation--these are some of the characteristics which must belong to the original worker. ”

“ Geology and related branches will also be omitted by restricting our study to phenomena which take place in short, definite, measurable periods of time. And lastly, those subjects in which, as in astronomy, the phenomena take place beyond the control of student and teacher, and in which their repetition at pleasure is impossible, will not be considered. Natural philosophy, or physics, as this term is generally used, and chemistry, will, therefore, be the subjects which we will consider as sources from which to draw matter for lessons for the children in our schools. ”

“ In using the term molecular weight, it is to be remembered that it does not express the weight of single molecules, but only their relative weight, millions of millions molecules being contained in the unit of volume. But on the hypothesis that there is the same number of molecules in the same volume of any gas, the specific gravities of gases can be, and are, identified with their molecular weights, and, on the ground of the hypothesis again, the unit of the numbers which enter into every chemical reaction and constitute the molecular weight, is stipulated to be that contained in two volumes. ”

“ Lessons in electricity or sound, for instance, can be given to children who have done nothing with other parts of science. But a natural beginning must be made, and an orderly sequence of lessons adopted. Children will not do what adults would find almost impossible in covering gaps between lessons.
Science may be compared to a great temple. Pillars, each built of many curiously joined stones, standing at the very entrance, represent the departments of science so far as man has studied them. We need not dig down and study the foundations with the children ”

“ With young pupils everywhere, and in most of our common, and even in many of our graded schools, the experiments must be performed by the teacher. With young pupils the time is too limited, and the responsibility and necessary care too great to permit of any other plan being practical. In many of our schools the small supply of apparatus renders this necessary even with larger pupils. Added to the reasons already given is the important one that in no other way--by no other plan--can the teacher be as readily sure that his pupils observe and reason fully for themselves. ”

“ Experimental work should be thoroughly honest as to conditions and results. If an experiment is not the success you expected it would be, say so honestly, and if you know why, explain it. The pupil should be taught to know just what is, theory or expectation to the contrary notwithstanding. Discoveries in physical science have often originated in a search for the reason for some unexpected thing. ”

“ The veneer as it comes rolling off the log presents all the diversity of colors and the beautiful grain and rich marking that have perhaps for centuries been growing to perfection in the silent depths of our great forests. ”

“ In this normal school a course in physics, in which the experiments are all performed in the class room by the teacher, is followed by a course in chemistry, in which the members of the class perform the experiments for themselves in the laboratory. And, notwithstanding the age, maturity, and previous observation of the pupils, a great deal must be done both in the laboratory and in the recitation room to be sure that all that happens is seen--that the purpose is clearly held in the mind--that the reason is fully understood. ”

“ An unillustrated principle must, when the necessity arises, be stored in the memory; and in the systematic study of books this necessity will often come. But we should never crowd this abstract work on the memory unassisted by the suggestive concrete, when the concrete aid is possible.
7. All that is taught should be true. It is not necessary to attempt to exhaust a subject, nor to attempt to teach minute details regarding it to the pupils in our schools, but it is necessary that every statement given to the pupil to be learned and remembered should contain no element of falsehood. ”

“ Some years ago, when asked by a wealthy gentleman to what machine-shop he had best send his son, who was to become a mechanical engineer, I advised him not to send him to any, but to fit up a shop for him where he could go and work at what he pleased without the drudgery of apprenticeship, to put him in the way of receiving such information as he needed, and especially to let him go where he could see things break. ”

“ The study of the old to find the new. The principle of the telephone, for instance, is as old as spoken language. The mere [1] pulses in the air--carrying all the characteristics of what you say--may set in vibration either the drum of my ear, or a disk of metal. How simple--and how simple all true science is--when we understand it. ”

“ A comparison of the kind of knowledge gained in either of the above ways with that gained by a study of science as such, will make some of the advantages of the latter evident. An act of complete knowledge consists in the identifying of an attribute with a subject. Attributes of quality--of condition--of relation, may be gained from lessons in which objects or pictures are used. Attributes of action which are unregulated by the observer may be learned from the study of animals. ”

“ An ideal course in science would be one in which nothing should be learned but that found out by the observation of the pupil himself under the guidance of the teacher, necessary terms being given, but only when the thing to be named had been considered, and the mind demanded the term because of a felt need. ”

“ Among the numerous good results which will follow the study of physical science are the following:
1. The cultivation of all the faculties of the child in a natural order, thus making him grow into a ready, quick, and observing man. Education in schools is too often shaped so as to repress instead of cultivate the instinctive desire for the knowledge of things which is found in every child.
2. The mechanical skill which comes from the preparation and use of apparatus. ”

“ Pictures are less valuable as educational aids than objects; at best they are but partially and imperfectly concrete. The study of pictures tends to cultivate the imagination and taste, but observation and judgment are but little exercised. ”

“ When, in the past, the man of letters, the poet, the orator, succeeded, by some fit expression, by some winged word, to engage the attention of the world concerning some subject he had at heart, the highest praise his fellow man could bestow was to cry out to him, "Well said, well said!" ”

“ One great original investigator, made such by the direction given his mind in one of our common schools, would be cheaply bought at the price of all that the study of science in our schools will cost for the next quarter of a century. ”

“ Later, pupils should be encouraged to name related phenomena, to mention things which they have seen happen which are due to associated causes, and to suggest variations for the experiment and tests for its explanation. Good results may be made to follow this kind of work even with very young pupils. A child grows in mental strength by using the powers he has, and mistakes seen to be such are not only steps toward a correct view of the subject under consideration, but are steps toward that habit of mind which spontaneously presents correct views at once in study which comes later in life. ”

“ In chemistry almost every substance can be prepared in several different ways. The common method is in most cases made so by some consideration of convenience, cheapness, or safety. Often only one method is considered in one place in a text book. In a review, however, several methods can be associated together. Tests, uses, etc., will vary, too, and should be studied with that fact in view. In physics phenomena illustrating a given principle can usually be made to take place in several different ways. ”

“ The time thus spent will have rested the pupils from their books, to which they will return refreshed, and instead of being time lost from other study the work will have been made enough more earnest and intense to make it again.
Apparatus for illustrating many of the ordinary facts of physics can be devised from materials always at hand. Many more can be made by any one skilled in the use of tools. In chemistry, the simplicity of the apparatus, and comparative cheapness of ordinary chemicals, make the use of a large number of beautiful and instructive experiments both easy and cheap. ”