Abstract
PUBLIC School science masters have not yet arrived at complete agreement as to how and what science should be taught in general education. The majority of their pupils are not destined for careers and professions in which a definite training in any one branch of science is essential; yet all, in this age which has realised that science is power, should be taught something of the scientific method, and should gain at least an introduction to each of the subjects on which personal and national welfare depend. Mr. Bernard Smith has here made an interesting attempt to steer a safe course between the Scylla of specialist teaching and the Charybdis of smattering, but in places sails perilously near the whirlpool. This Part II. is concerned with electricity and magnetism, astronomy, geology, biology, physiology, and hygiene, and the principles of agriculture. Of these the first three are handled rather more successfully than the others; but throughout the needs of an ordinarily intelligent and well-educated “man in the street” have been kept in mind.
Elements of Natural Science.
W. Bernard
Smith
By. Part 2. Pp. viii + 268. (London: E. Arnold and Co., 1923.) 5s. 6d.
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Elements of Natural Science. Nature 112, 434 (1923). https://doi.org/10.1038/112434c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/112434c0