A course in biology given to beginners in the secondary school should have
certain aims. These aims must be determined to a degree, first, by the
capabilities of the pupils, second, by their native interests, and, third,
by the environment of the pupils.
The boy or girl of average ability upon admission to the secondary school
is not a thinking individual. The training given up to this time, with but
rare exceptions, has been in the forming of simple concepts. These concepts
have been reached didactically and empirically. Drill and memory work have
been the pedagogic vehicles. Even the elementary science work given has
resulted at the best in an interpretation of some of the common factors in
the pupil's environment, and a widening of the meaning of some of his
concepts. Therefore, the first science of the secondary school, elementary
biology, should be primarily the vehicle by which the child is taught to
solve problems and to think straight in so doing. No other subject is more
capable of logical development. No subject is more vital because of its
relation to the vital things in the life of the child. A series of
experiments and demonstrations, discussed and applied as definite concrete
problems which have arisen within the child's horizon, will develop power
in thinking more surely than any other subject in the first year of the
secondary school.
But in our eagerness to develop the power of logical thinking we must not
lose sight of the previous training of our pupil. Up to this time the
method of induction, that handmaiden of logical thought, has been almost
unknown. Concepts have been formed deductively by a series of comparisons.
All concepts have been handed down by the authority of the teacher or the
text; the inductive search for the unknown is as yet a closed book. It is
unwise, then, to directly introduce the pupil to the method of induction
with a series of printed directions which, though definite in the mind of
the teacher because of his wider horizon, mean little or nothing as a
definite problem to the pupil. The child must be brought to the
appreciation of the problem through the deductive method, by a comparison
of the future problem with some definite concrete experience within his own
field of vision. Then by the inductive experiment, still led by a series of
oral questions, he comes to the real end of the experiment, the conclusion,
with the true spirit of the investigator. The result is tested in the light
of past experiment and a generalization is formed which means something to
the pupil.
For the above reason the laboratory problems, which naturally precede the
textbook work, should be separated from the subject matter of the text. A
textbook in biology should serve to verify the student's observations made
in the laboratory, it should round out his concept or generalization by
adding such material as he cannot readily observe and it should give the
student directly such information as he cannot be expected to gain directly
or indirectly through his laboratory experience. For these reasons the
laboratory manual has been separated from the text.
"The laboratory method was such an emancipation from the
old-time bookish slavery of pre-laboratory days that we may
have been inclined to overdo it and to subject ourselves to
a new slavery. It should never be forgotten that the
laboratory is simply a means to the end; that the dominant
thing should be a consistent chain of ideas which the
laboratory may serve to elucidate. When, however, the
laboratory assumes the first place and other phases of the
course are made explanatory to it, we have taken, in my
mind, an attitude fundamentally wrong. The question is, not
what _types_ may be taken up in the laboratory to be fitted
into the general scheme afterwards, but what _ideas_ are
most worth while to be worked out and developed in the
laboratory, if that happens to be the best way of doing it,
or if not, some other way to be adopted with perfect
freedom. Too often our course of study of an animal or plant
takes the easiest rather than the most illuminating path.
What is easier, for instance, particularly with large
classes of restless pupils who apparently need to be kept in
a condition of uniform occupation, than to kill a supply of
animals, preferably as near alike as possible, and set the
pupils to work drawing the dead remains? This method is
usually supplemented by a series of questions concerning the
remains which are sure to keep the pupils busy a while
longer, perhaps until the bell strikes, and which usually
are so planned as to anticipate any ideas that might
naturally crop up in the pupil's mind during the drawing
exercise.
"Such an abuse of the laboratory idea is all wrong and
should be avoided. The ideal laboratory ought to be a
retreat for rainy days; a substitute for out of doors; a
clearing house of ideas brought in from the outside. Any
course in biology which can be confined within four walls,
even if these walls be of a modern, well-equipped
laboratory, is in some measure a failure. Living things, to
be appreciated and correctly interpreted, must be seen and
studied in the open where they will be encountered
throughout life. _The place where an animal or plant is
found is just as important a characteristic as its shape or
function._ Impossible field excursions with large classes
within school hours, which only bring confusion to
_inflexible_ school programs, are not necessary to
accomplish this result. Properly administered, it is without
doubt one of our most efficient devices for developing
biological ideas, but the laboratory should be kept in its
proper relation to the other means at our disposal and never
be allowed to degenerate either into a place for vacuous
drawing exercises or a biological morgue where dead remains
are viewed."--_Dr. H. E. Walter._
For the sake of the pupil the number of technical and scientific terms has
been reduced to a minimum. The language has been made as simple as possible
and the problems made to hinge upon material already known, by hearsay at
least, to the pupil. So far as consistent with a well-rounded course in the
essentials of biological science, the interests of the children have been
kept in the foreground. In a recent questionnaire sent out by the author
and answered by over three thousand children studying biology in the
secondary schools of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York
by far the greatest number gave as the most interesting topics those
relating to the care and functions of the human body and the control and
betterment of the environment. As would be expected, boys have different
biological interests from girls, and children in rural schools wish to
study different topics from those in congested districts in large
communities. The time has come when we must frankly recognize these
interests and adapt the content of our courses in biology to interpret the
_immediate_ world of the pupil.
With this end in view the following pages have been written. This book
shows boys and girls living in an urban community how they may best live
within their own environment and how they may cooperate with the civic
authorities for the betterment of their environment. A logical course is
built up around the topics which appeal to the average normal boy or girl,
topics given in a logical sequence so as to work out the solution of
problems bearing on the ultimate problem of the entire course, that of
preparation for citizenship in the largest sense.
Seasonal use of materials has been kept in mind in outlining this course.
Field trips, when properly organized and later used as a basis for
discussion in the classroom, make a firm foundation on which to build the
superstructure of a course in biology. The normal environment, its relation
to the artificial environment of the city, the relations of mutual give and
take existing between plants and animals, are better shown by means of
field trips than in any other way. Field and museum trips are enjoyed by
the pupils as well. These result in interest and in better work. The course
is worked up around certain great biological principles; hence insects may
be studied when abundant in the fall in connection with their relations to
green plants and especially in their relation to flowers. In the winter
months material available for the laboratory is used. Saprophytic and
parasitic organisms, wild plants in the household, are studied in their
relations to mankind, both as destroyers of food, property and life and as
man's invaluable friends. The economic phase of biology may well be taken
up during the winter months, thus gaining variety in subject matter and in
method of treatment. The apparent emphasis placed upon economic material in
the following pages is not real. It has been found that material so given
makes for variety, as it may be assigned as a topical reading lesson or
simply used as reference when needed. Cyclic work in the study of life
phenomena and of the needs of organisms for oxygen, food, and reproduction
culminates, as it rightly should, in the study of life-processes of man and
man's relation to his environment.
In a course in biology the difficulty comes not so much in knowing what to
teach as in knowing what _not_ to teach. The author believes that he has
made a selection of the topics most vital in a well-rounded course in
elementary biology directed toward civic betterment. The physiological
functions of plants and animals, the hygiene of the individual within the
community, conservation and the betterment of existing plant and animal
products, the big underlying biological concepts on which society is built,
have all been used to the end that the pupil will become a better, stronger
and more unselfish citizen. The "spiral" or cyclic method of treatment has
been used throughout, the purpose being to ultimately build up a number of
well-rounded concepts by constant repetition but with constantly varied
viewpoint.
The sincere thanks of the author is extended to all who have helped make
this book possible, and especially to the members of the Department of
Biology in the De Witt Clinton High School. Most of the men there have
directly or indirectly contributed their time and ideas to help make this
book worth more to teachers and pupils. The following have read the
manuscript in its entirety and have offered much valuable constructive
criticism: Dr. Herbert E. Walter, Professor of Zoology in Brown University;
Miss Elsie Kupfer, Head of the Department of Biology in Wadleigh High
School; George C. Wood, of the Department of Biology in the Boys' High
School, Brooklyn; Edgar A. Bedford, Head of Department of Biology in the
Stuyvesant High School; George E. Hewitt, George T. Hastings, John D.
McCarthy, and Frank M. Wheat, all of the Department of Biology in the De
Witt Clinton High School.
Thanks are due, also, to Professor E. B. Wilson, Professor G. N. Calkins,
Mr. William C. Barbour, Dr. John A. Sampson, W. C. Stevens, and C. W.
Beebe, Dr. Alvin Davison, and Dr. Frank Overton; to the United States
Department of Agriculture; the New York Aquarium; the Charity Organization
Society; and the American Museum of Natural History, for permission to copy
and use certain photographs and cuts which have been found useful in
teaching. Dr. Charles H. Morse and Dr. Lucius J. Mason, of the De Witt
Clinton High School, prepared the hygiene outline in the appendix. Frank M.
Wheat and my former pupil, John W. Teitz, now a teacher in the school, made
many of the line drawings and took several of the photographs of
experiments prepared for this book. To them especially I wish to express my
thanks.
At the end of each of the following chapters is a list of books which have
proved their use either as reference reading for students or as aids to the
teacher. Most of the books mentioned are within the means of the small
school. Two sets are expensive: one, _The Natural History of Plants_, by
Kerner, translated by Oliver, published by Henry Holt and Company, in two
volumes, at $11; the other, _Plant Geography upon a Physiological Basis_,
by Schimper, published by the Clarendon Press, $12; but both works are
invaluable for reference.
For a general introduction to physiological biology, Parker, _Elementary
Biology_, The Macmillan Company; Sedgwick and Wilson, _General Biology_,
Henry Holt and Company; Verworn, _General Physiology_, The Macmillan
Company; and Needham, _General Biology_, Comstock Publishing Company, are
most useful and inspiring books.
Two books stand out from the pedagogical standpoint as by far the most
helpful of their kind on the market. No teacher of botany or zoology can
afford to be without them. They are: Lloyd and Bigelow, _The Teaching of
Biology_, Longmans, Green, and Company, and C. F. Hodge, _Nature Study and
Life_, Ginn and Company. Other books of value from the teacher's standpoint
are: Ganong, _The Teaching Botanist_, The Macmillan Company; L. H. Bailey,
_The Nature Study Idea_, Doubleday, Page, and Company; and McMurry's _How
to Study_, Houghton Mifflin Company.