Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-09-27

non-theatrical picture is putting Americana
cation into homes in a language that even
an illiterate immigrant can understand.
Science Taught by Film
"You can teach all sorts of scientific
facts by films which you can't with books,
because people won't take the trouble to
read them. Health boards. for instance,
can put their lessons across in pictures as
they can in no other way. We have one pic
ture called Unlocking the HOokworm'
which is unknown to the theater-gotng pub
lie, but is in great demand by the Interna-
tional Health Board for use in all the south
ern states
ga motion picture has been made of ev-
cry major operation. We have films show
ing microscopic organisms and demonstrat-
ing physiological processes, as, for example,
the circulation Of blood. Then, of course,
they have it all over textbooks in teaching
chemistry, biology and other scientific sub
jects in the schools"
The producer handed us his authority for
this last statement-an article by Mr.. Fl. G..
Wells-in which he says:
81 ask for half a doze1 projectors or so
in every school and for a we'll stocked store
house of films. The possibilities of certain
branches of teaching have been altogether
revolutionized by the cinematograph. In
nearly every school nowadays you will find
lot of more or less worn and damaged
used for demon strating the elementary facts
of chemistry, physics and the like.
"Now that is the sort of thing which still
goes on. But it ought to be entirely out OF
date. All that scientific bric-a-brac in the
cupboard had far better be thrown away. All
the demonstration experiments that science
teachers will require in the future can be
performed once for all-before cinemato-
graph. They can be done finally; they need
never be done again. You can get the best
he can do what has been done with the best
apparatus in the best light; anything that
is very minute or subtle you can magnify or
repeat from another point of view; anything
that is intricate you can record with extreme
slowness you can show the facts a mile off
or six inches off--and all that your actual
class teacher need do now is to spend five
minutes in getting out the film he wants, 10
minutes in reading over the corresponding
lecture notes, and then he can run the film
give the lesson, question his class upon it,
note what they miss and how they take it.,
run the film again for second scrutiny.
and get out for the subsequent study of the
class the ample supply of diagrams and pic
lures needed to fix the lesson. Can there
be any comparison between the educational
efficiency of the two methodist"
Mr.. Wells seems to doubt it. Neverthe-
less, such comparison was recently made
in Detroit school under the direction OF
Mr.. J. H. Wilson, supervisor OF visual edu-
cation, with gratifying results. The subject
chosen for the experiment was an educa-
tional film explaining "How We Hear" The
children were separated into two groups,
one of which was to the film, and the
other of which was to receive an oral les
son in the same facts.
The film was shown twice to the visual
class in the astonishingly short space of IL
minutes. The oral lesson required SIS min
utes, the teacher taking great pains to i'm
press upon ker pupils the same information
contained in the film. At the close of the
lesson the two separate classes were given
written examination on the subject. Then
the papers were collected and marked with
out respect to the type of lesson by the
same teacher. The average grade attained
by the visual group in the first test was
64.76 per cent as compared with 61.5 per
cent made by the oral group-that is to say,
the visual gain was 1926 per cent.
month later a second or memory test
was given on the same subject, and this time
the visual group averaged 63.9 per cent-a
gain of Al per cent over the 59.5 per cent
average made by the oral pupils.
While the percentage of gain in this ex-
pertinent might have been even greater if
the subject chosen had been "How We See"
instead of chow We Hear it is large
enough to be we'll worth while, especially
when the saving Of time is considered.
We suggest feeding the new polar expedi-
tionc I'll Gu raIiof Oartios ram find them