Arizona republican., 1900-12-19
The Second Day of The Joint
 County Institute L~
An Interesting Paper By Professor Woodward on Elementary In struction in the sciences-The Study of Nature.

terest yesterday. The morning session was called to order promptly at a. m.
 Mir. s. M. Woodward read a paper on An Experiment in Teaching Science" His rendition was good and he spoke in decisive tones. In part, MT Wood ward spoke as follows:
 T shall give some account of the work of one of the classes I am a pres ent teaching. The students are from one of our lowest intercollegiate class es; the work is of a most elementary and general nature Of physical sci ence, and is such as might be taught in the higher grades of any gTammer school. It is because I have a most sincere faith in the value of the work to the students and hope that perhaps this account of my efforts may en- courage other similar attempts, that l speak in such de,ai! of my own class work.
 We teach this work because very few, if any. of the students taking it have ever had any similar work be- fore. No text book is used and the course consists almost entirely of in dividual laboratory exercises. The ob- ject of the study of science should be not at all the acquisition of facts, but the acquisition of the power to think, the power to observe accurately, to compare carefully and impartialiy. to reason quickly and methodically. Study of science must deal with facts. Facts must be learned in order that the material may be at hand for train ing and practice of the various mental operations.
 E1 r-lI, n-.1 arr. fN,s n a exercise of the class as shall give them knowledge Of something practically useful. I believe that the best results from science study can be obtained by laboratory work, each student working alone, and, as far as possible, unaiied by the teacher. Then some skill in manipulation may result. Accordingly I try to choose exercises such that the skill acquired may have some practi- cal value. That the apparatus used sinai, be, so far as possible, similar to tools and utensils used in everyday life. But let me repeat, I consider the facts learned and the skill in manipu- lation acquired, throughout, of very minor importance compared with the mental discipline of the work.
 Before beginning the class thought it well to formulate the objects of the course, which 1 have explained aouNe, as follows:
 T To form an introduction to the advanced courses in the different sci ences offered later in our curriculum.
 '2. To initiate the students into the laboratory method of studying sci ence.
 "S. To arouse love and enthusiasm for the study of the sciences.
 A. To give such knowledge that the students may intelIigently choose the lines of their future study.
 "5. To give practice in English com position.
 "6. To develop observation, jUdg- ment and reason.
 T began the course with exercises in agnetism, because this subject is easy and interesting to the students and late additions to the class can take up the work without suffering much from having missed the first of the exercises. The first lesson consist ed of an examination of the compass, a written description Of it. a drawing of it and written description of its use.
 The second lesson consisted of ob- servation and description of the effect of bringing different objects of iron up to a compass from different directions. Other substances, such as copper, brass, glass, wood, stone, crayon, pa per, etc, were tried similarly. Exer- cises followed on the bar magnet, the effect of a magnet on a compass, mag netizing iron. etc. In all, there were eight or nine more exercises on magma tism.
 The next subject taken up was mensuration. I dictated the dimen- sions of simple figures, such as rect angles and triangles and the class drew them in concert using yard-sticks, me ire sticks, twO-foOt rules, etc. I found that many of the class, especially the girls. were entirely ignorant of the sub divisions of the inch on a rule, and were just as ready to write down eighths as ninths or tenths as their proper value.
 We then took up the metric meas ure. linear, volumes and weight. They measured the volume of a drinking glass, chemist beakers, etc, by cylindrical graduate, then the volume of stones and various irregular objects by displacement in water. Practice was given in weighing in grains and fractions of grains. Other exercises were on density, loss of weight in wat CT, balancing of unequal weights by putting them at unequal distances from the fulcrum of a balanced bar, etc. This is as much as we have cov- cred this year"
 MT. Woodward then followed with an extensive description of his intended of aF "a
 NATURE STUDY.
 The paper was followed by a discus sion headed by Fred J. Breeze. His points were: Nature study is not text book work. It is observation, experiment and induction. Nature study and study of elementary science are two terms for the same thing. Some scientists opinion of nature study is as follows: w. P. Shannon says: Mature study Or. science work