CONTENTS CONTINUED. PAGE INTRODUCTORY METEOROLOGICAL EXPERIMENTS—W. H. Snyder. THE COEFFICIENT OF EXPANSION OF AIR AT CONSTANT VOLUME-F. A. 476 AND Osborn. A SIMPLE SPECIFIC GRAVITY BOTTLE FOR GASES—Arthur W. Gray . 477 480 482 484 A CHEAP AND EFFICIENT OXYHYDROGEN ELECTROLYTIC APPARATUS ELEMENTARY EXPERIMENTS IN OBSERVATIONAL ASTRONOMY-George W. Myers METROLOGY; DECADENCE OF THE VULGAR FRACTION-Rufus P. Williams. 492 BOOK REVIEWS-Watson's Elementary Experimental Chemistry; Kellogg's Elementary REPORTS OF MEETINGS-New York State Science Teachers' Association 499 New Scientific Books For Students and Teachers. Chemical Analysis. A Laboratory Guide to the study of Qualitative Analysis. By B. H. S. Balley, Ph. D., A complete catalogue, containing titles and prices of all scientific P. Blakiston's Son & Co., Publishers. 1012 Walnut St., PHILADELPHIA. of Physical Apparatus 1531 Resistance Box, Bridge and Galvanometer. Students' Sets for Work in Electrical Measurement. Our work is corrected to the German Bureau of Certified Projection Lanterns Covering Every Requirement of We received the government contract to supply lanterns to SEND FOR DESCRIPTIVE MATTER ON OUR :: Apparatus With the Stamp of Originality Upon It. TEACHERS AND SCHOOL OFFICERS who desire the latest appliances in any branch of science, may receive our complete catalogue free upon request. ALFRED L. ROBBINS-MARTIN CO. REPRESENTED IN CANADA BY THE STEINBERGER, HENDRY CO, LTD. 37 RICHMOND ST., WEST, TORONTO. WORKS AND BUSINESS OFFICE, Cor. Franklin & Erie Sts., CHICAGO. OF HORATIO CHUTE I assume as the basis for this discussion, that the teaching considered in this paper is educational in its nature rather than professional. I mean by this that it shall be for the ultimate purpose of training the mind to do better what all minds can do in some degree, rather than to accumulate a fund of information to be used in the practice of a profession. The psychological movement of the learner rather than the logical development of the subject is the thing that is of the first importance, and is the chief factor in determining the method to be employed. Permit me also to state that in all my illustrations I shall have in mind the teaching of science in high schools. If the teaching of scientific subjects in colleges and professional schools were to be considered, the illustrations and basic propositions would need very considerable modification. The greatest contribution of science to education is the scientific method. The scientific method is not a method of teaching, but it is a method of thought, and is capable of universal application. It is called the scientific method because it has been developed chiefly in scientific subjects by scientific men. importance is so great and so fully recognized that we are continually finding the scientific method applied to subjects formerly considered most remote from scientific facts. *Part of a Paper on "The Study of Types, Its Significance and Its Application," read before the New York State Science Teachers' Association, December, 27, 1901. In the scientific method of study, an individual is the first thing to be considered. From this fact the scientific method is sometimes regarded as an example of induction. In reality, the scientific. method is quite as much deductive as it is inductive, but the starting point is the same as in a case of pure induction. This individual which is taken as the starting point may be calied a type, since it always embodies the characteristics of the group that is founded upon it. A type may, however, mean much more than the individual that is studied. It necessarily involves all the characters that enter into the concept of the class, but it should be one that contains the average characters of the class. Individuals of the same kind are not all alike, Variations occur that make them individuals. These variations are quantitative in their nature, and in some individuals are much greater than they are in others. In any group of individuals that are combined into a class, there will always be extremes of variation, and an average point or norm, from which variations occur. In the vicinity of this norm will be found the greater number of individuals that constitute the class. It is this average, this point of departure, this possessor of common characters in the least variable degree that may stand for the type of the class. It will be seen, then, that the selection of an individual to stand as the type of a group is a matter demanding considerable care. It certainly would be very unwise to select as the type for study one of the most aberrant or divergent forms in the group. It is evident that the selection of an individual to stand as a type will depend upon what it typifies. An individual is not a type unless it stands in the mind for a class, or stands as the representative of a group, all of which have common characteristics. We come at once, then, to classification as an element in scientific study. Classification is implied in almost every operation of the mind above the simplest. It is implied in every act of judgment. Whenever we use a common noun we make use of classification or its results. Every catalogue, every index, every table of contents, the arrangement of our houses and of our streets attest the necessity we feel ourselves under for classifying objects. It is a universal process, and is common to all human |