VITALIZING THE ELEMENTARYSCIENCE PROGRAM

EDWARD POWERSLarkfield School, Northport, L. 7.

It is a notable fact that our schools lag behind scientificprogress. Nowhere is this more evident than in the elementaryschools, where the study of science has its foundational be-ginnings. Too often science is either ignored completely, or givenlip service through the mere reading of texts. A program carriedout in the latter manner is foredoomed to failure. The reasonfor this is obvious. Science is a study of the natural and physicalenvironment. This environment cannot be understood by merereference to a book. It must, rather, be seen, felt, heard, and ingeneral, be brought closer to the natural and instinctive curi-osity that is prevalent in all children. Capitalizing on thiscuriosity the environment should be brought to the classroom.Children should be given the opportunity for close contact withthe forces and materials that surround them. The resultsachieved when this is done are amazing. Science becomes aninteresting, vital, challenge to the children.Many elementary teachers have meager science training and

thus shy away from the teaching of it. Science to them is amysterious world closeted behind barriers of research and im-mersed in technical verbiage. It is remote and somewhatfrightening.

This point of view is totally wrong. Any elementary teacherwho is capable can do a fine job with science. The simple re-quirements are a sincere desire to help children with science andthe ability to stimulate the students in her charge.How can we make elementary science more meaningful and

vital? The answer to this problem can be found in the child.He will not understand the abstrast. He is not interested in theremote. His desire to learn is only stimulated by the things thatare within his range of understanding.Let us take, then, the various aspects of science such as heat,

electricity, nature, rocks, air, magnetism, fire, water, machines,astronomy, light, weather, food, aviation. These are but a fewof the general areas.How should these units be taught? By teaching them through

the mediums that a child can understand. The most successful

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268 SCHOOL SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS

elementary science teacher is one who. selects;an area of studyand then considers all the elements of it that are familiar in thelife of a child. .

For example�suppose a unit on machines is being taught.The most comprehensive understanding of this area can be de-veloped through the use of such familiar devices as hammers,bicycles, toy cars, erector sets, clothesline pulleys, can openers,nutcrackers, scissors, scout knives, doorknobs, keys, screwtopjars, and ball bats. Every child uses these and what child is notwilling to bring such items into the classroom? To them it repre-sents play, but to the teacher if becomes an invaluable aid tothe understanding of the six simple machines. Through play,discussion, and demonstration the child will learn more aboutthese devices as machines than weeks of reading could teach.Then what intelligent teacher would not send the childrenhunting in their homes for more machines to be catalogued as a

lever, wheel and axle, pulley, wedge, screw, or inclined plane.Even the complicated machinery of home, school, and industrycan be investigated in terms of these.Any unit taught’in this fashion can make teaching a stimu-

lating experience and learning more interesting and meaningful.Does this require years of scientific training? No, all it demandsis the desire to think and see as a child would see it.

Electricity is familiar to every child and the mere mention ofthe subject will arouse his curiosity. .It seems logical, therefore,for them to bring in fuses, wires, switches, light bulbs, toasters,hot plates, Christmas tree lights, plugs and other items of thisnature; They can play with them and learn many valuablethings. If we are to learn about sockets’the best way is to takethem apart. Old light bulbs can be broken and examined.Toasters can be connected and studied. Through Christmas treelights they learn series and parallel circuits. Simple electricmotors can be made, dry cells taken apart. With a few dry cellsthey can learn to make circuits and short circuits. Fuses can be"blown" easily by a simple demonstration. With their dry cellsthey can discover what substances conduct electricity. All typesof insulators are available in their homes for use Jn the class-room. Why not bring in an electric train or two? Surely this can

be a learning situation. The transformer could be taken apart.These represent but a few, thoughts on what can be done in thisfield with no mention of the great implications for safety teach-ing in this area. ’ .

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Or�the study of air. What child would not love to bring into class such items as kites, balloons, model planes, fountainpens, soda straws, sailboats, toy parachutes, sink pumps, siphonsand basketballs. Yet, with these any elementary teacher with aminimum of research can utilize these famil ar materials andweave a splendid pattern of study on air. Out of this can de-velop a study of aviation. Students can make model planes inclass and with little difficulty can learn more about planes thanhundreds of pictures could teach him.

In studying weather a class could have a lot of fun buildinga weather bureau on the school playground. Some simple car-pentry, a few instruments borrowed from the high school, athermometer, a home-made wind vane, an anemometer, a tinpail, and a metric ruler to serve as a rain gauge, plus a chart forrecording the weather conditions observed with these devicescan make any child a pretty good weather forecaster, not tomention the learnings derived from the instruments. In addit onhe will form the habit of observing his surroundings and hiscuriosity will grow and expand into other areas.

Thus, we have seen that with a minimum of study, a willing-ness to see things through the eyes of a child, and good organiza-tion any teacher can be a successful, stimulating teacher ofelementary science. Children love to hunt, find, and bring thingsto school. Capitalizing on this instinctive urge the teacher candirect it to her ends and weld elementary science into a usefuland challenging experience for teacher and child.

A METHOD FOR TEACHING FORMULA WRITINGAND STRUCTURAL DIAGRAMING IN

HIGH SCHOOL CHEMISTRY*

KENNETH E. ANDERSONUniversity High School, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota

The first and second articles outlined the method for binaryacids and for trinary acids. This article outlines the method tobe followed in writing formulae and structural diagrams forsalts. By definition a salt is a metal plus an acid radical. Thismeans that the hydrogen of the acid has been replaced by ametal.

* This is thelast of a series of three articles.