Abstract
TEACHERS of science in elementary schools now live in halcyon days. Time was when books containing courses of experiments suitable for teaching the young idea the science of common things were hard to find, and they who desired to impart such instruction had to prepare their own sequence of lessons. But the examinations of the Science and Art Department and similar bodies have changed all that. There are now numerous primers for all branches of elementary science, some good, many indifferent, and a few bad. Teachers are no longer under the necessity of exercising the faculty of originality in devising experiments for class demonstration, for the work is done for them, and frequently done well, by the much-maligned text-book writer. Possibly the mental atrophy thus brought about is not desirable, but there is little doubt that the teaching has been benefited. Few of the courses of elementary science in our schools and colleges were truly scientific in character, and it is chiefly the text-book that has improved the old state of things by giving law and order to the chaos of experiments.
Simple Experiments for Science Teaching.
By John A. Bower. (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1894.)
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[Book Reviews]. Nature 50, 123 (1894). https://doi.org/10.1038/050123b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/050123b0