Milford chronicle., 1921-07-15
GEOGRAPHY CLASS GETS MOVIE
TRIP TO WEST COAST

tHENlQEkAHHl OuACO ulO IL
TRIP TO WEST COAST
Bows and girls in the fourth, fifth
and sixth grades in Evanston, Ill, to
the number of 12O, were treated to a
! trip to California and other Pacific
Coast states as the crowning feature
of the years work in geography, as
| taught in the Lincoln School of South
Evanston, Ill. Pupils and teachers
travelled via moving pictures, being
personally conducted by a school
film on Pacific mountains and low
lands produced by the Society for Wis
ual Education.
Following the showing, which was
given in the school auditorium and
consumed fifteen minutes, the pupils
returned to their classrOOms and
wrote answers to several short ques-
tiOns, put to them by way of learn
ing their opinion of the innovation.
To the question, 'Has this real fix
ed more firmly in your mind the geOg-
raphy of the western states?" ia ans
wered in the affirmative. The rea-
sons which practically every paper
set forth were because it is more in
stand; easier to remember" "It was
more interesting because it was a pic
ture. Our geography book is just
written wrote one fourth-grade girl.
A sixth-grader put it succintly: "Pic-
lures tell things palmer than words.
Another member of a sixth-grade
class which had just finished making
product maps of the United States,
wrote: cit was certainly wonderful to
see real people cutting lumber, min
ing gold, picking oranges and doing
other kinds of work"
Many dwelt upon the fact that they |
had felt they were really travelling
out west, because everything was so
natural" and a fifth-grade boy put |
down: "It is more like the real thing
than studying out of a book. can
fix it in my head better when I see
it in the movies" This pupil, comment
ed his teacher, belongs to the major
ity group of "eye-minded'' individuals,
as opposed to those who grasp things
more quickly through the ear.
OF the half-dOZen who responded in
the negative, one declared she already
knew the West because she had liv-
ed there; two complained that the tit
les ibid not tell as much as the book;
.wo could not understand very WELL"
md one could not see from where
she sat'-which is only one of many
say the visualists, why por-
able projectors which can u used
light in the classroom arc essential
o the best results from Visual Edu-
,ation.
Four of the negative six somewhat
answer yes" to the
leXt question, which inquired wheth-
r films of the same sort would help :
n all of their geography study. "The
ook tells you more about each thing,
,ut the movie is bigger picture and !
hows MORE" a fourth-grade pupil
grote. All but three votes out of the {
Otal 120 cast were in favor of more .
I'm lessons in geography.
Another question wanted to know !
yhich scenes the pupils considered :
specially typical; that is, in the :
vent all titles were omitted, which =
ictures would tell them what partic- =
lar group of States had been filmed. !,
he vote was tie between mountains
nd "big trees" with waterfalls and A
range groves running them a close -
ace, and a sprinkling of votes for =,
lmbering and gold-mining scenes, -
laciers, and the Chinese ships in the Al
Ort of Seattle. Il
For the teachers personal informa- -
on, each class was asked which
roup of states interested them most. h
he vote stood as follows: Western, =.
;; New England, Is; Southern, 13; ~
entral, 8; Southwestern, s.; Middle
tlantic, 4; Northern, 2. Among the =,
.asons given for the overwhelming n,
'eference expressed for the western n
cup were such as, because of the II
because of the wonder n
! scenery" because it is fun to see ce
EN- work the buckets in the gold in
ming scenes" New England was So
eferred because it is more settled"
ID because of it's fishing;" the South ri
ecause of cotton-growing; the Cen ii,
al states because they have more ar
ffenet products" and because of the
Lies;" the Southwest principally of
ecause of the Texas ranches" the wi
ddle Atlantic States because of he
w York City and Niagara Falls"
d the Northern states because Of a
cir big woods" M,
Miss A. E. Dawell, one of the teach tn
S whose classes participated in the da
pertinent, in discussing the tre- isn
.ndous vote for the West, said: y
That a three-f1fths vote was cast w
: the western group is explained to fol
large extent by the fact that the 81,
n showing Picif1c Coast scenery err
d industries had just been shown. fel
made that section far more vivid tb,
d interesting to them than other mf
rts of the country which had been pu
ldied only from textbooks and pho 1yi
,raphs." of
rhe other teachers concerned in the tb,
I'm review were Miss M. Wilson,
IS M. Hansen and Miss N. Turnbull, SD,
of the faculty of Lincoln School. he,