First week. WHY STUDY BIOLOGY? Relation to human health, hygiene. Relations
existing between plants and animals. Relation of bacteria to man. Uses of
plants and animals. Conservation of plants and animals. Relation to life of
citizen in the city. Plants and animals in relation to their environment.
What is the environment; light, heat, water, soil, food, etc. What plants
take out of the environment. What animals take out of the environment.
Dependence of plants and animals upon the factors of the environment.
_Laboratory_: Study of a plant or an animal in the school or at home to
determine what it takes from its environment.
Second week. SOME RELATIONS EXISTING BETWEEN PLANTS (GREEN) AND ANIMALS.
Field trip planned to show that insects feed upon plants; make their homes
upon plants. That flowers are pollinated by insects. Insects lay eggs upon
certain food plants. Green plants make food for animals. Other relations.
(Time allotment. One day trip, collecting, etc.; two days' discussion of
trip in all its relations.) Make a careful study of the locality you wish
to visit, have a plan that the pupils know about beforehand. Review and
hygiene of pupil's environment, 2 days.
Third week. STUDY OF A FLOWER, PARTS ESSENTIAL TO POLLINATION NAMED.
Adaptations for insect pollination worked out in laboratory. Study of bee
or butterfly as an insect carrier of pollen. Names of parts of insect
learned. Elementary knowledge of groups of insects seen on field trip.
Bees, butterflies, grasshoppers, beetles, possibly flies and bugs. Drawing
of a flower, parts labeled. Drawing of an insect, outline only, parts
labeled. Careful study of some fall flower fitted for insect pollination
with an insect as pollinating agent. Some examples of cross-pollination
explained. Practical value of cross-pollination.
Fourth week. LIVING PLANTS AND ANIMALS COMPARED. Parts of plants,
functions; organs, tissues, cells. Demonstration cells of onion or elodea.
How cells form others. What living matter can do. Reproduction. Growth of
pollen tube, fertilization. Development of ovule into seed. Fruits, how
formed. Uses, to man.
Fifth week. WHAT MAKES A SEED GROW. Bean seed, a baby plant, and food
supply. Food, what is it? Organic nutrients, tests for starch, protein,
oil. Show their presence in seeds.
Sixth week. NEED FOR FOODS. Germination of bean due to (_a_) presence of
foods, (_b_) outside factors. What is done with the food. Release of
energy. Examples of engine, plants, human body. Oxidation in body. Proof by
experiment. Test for presence of CO{2}. Oxidation in growing plant,
experiment. Respiration a general need for both plants and animals.
Seventh week. NEED FOR DIGESTION. The corn grain. Parts, growth, food
supply outside body of plant, how does it get inside. Digestion, need for.
Test for grape sugar. Enzymes, their function. Action of diastase on
starch.
Eighth week. WHAT PLANTS TAKE FROM THE SOIL, HOW THEY DO THIS. Use of root.
Influence of gravity and water. Why? Absorption a function. Root hairs.
Demonstration. Pocket gardens, optional home work, but each pupil must work
on root hairs from actual specimen. How root absorbs. Osmosis; what
substances will osmose. Experiments to demonstrate this.
Ninth week. COMPOSITION OF SOIL. What root hairs take out of soil. Plant
needs mineral matter to make living matter. Why? Nitrogen necessary.
Sources of nitrogen, the nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Relation of this to man.
Rotation of crops.
Tenth week. HOW GREEN PLANTS MAKE FOOD. Passage of liquids up stem.
Demonstration. Structure of a green leaf. Cellular structure demonstrated.
Microscopic demonstration of cells, stoma, air spaces, chlorophyll bodies.
Evaporation of water from green leaf, regulation of transpiration.
Eleventh week. _Midterm Examinations._ Sun a source of energy. Effect of
light on green plants. Experimental proof. Starch made in green leaf. Light
and air necessary for starch making. Proof. Protein making in leaf.
By-products in starch making. Proof. Respiration.
Twelfth week. THE CIRCULATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF FOOD IN GREEN PLANTS.
Uses of bark, wood, what part of stem does food pass down. Willow twig
experiment. Summary of functions of living matter in plant. Forestry
lecture. Economic uses of green plants. Reports.
Thirteenth week. PLANTS WITHOUT CHLOROPHYLL IN THEIR RELATION TO MAN.
Saprophytic fungi. Molds. Growth on bread or other substances. Conditions
most favorable for growth. Favorite foods. Methods of prevention. Economic
importance.
Fourteenth week. YEASTS IN THEIR RELATION TO MAN. Experiments to show
fermentation is caused by yeasts. Experiments to show conditions necessary
for fermentation. The part played by yeasts in bread making, in wine
making, in other industries. Structure of yeast demonstrated. Summary.
Fifteenth week. EXPERIMENTS TO SHOW WHERE BACTERIA MAY BE FOUND AND
CONDITIONS NECESSARY TO GROWTH BEGUN. Have cultures collected and placed in
a warm room during the holidays. Suggested experiments are exposure to air
of quiet room and room with persons moving, dust of floor, knife blade,
etc.
Sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth weeks. THE MONTH OF JANUARY SHOULD
BE DEVOTED TO THE STUDY OF BACTERIA IN THEIR GENERAL RELATIONS TO MAN.
Economically, both directly and indirectly. Especial emphasis placed on the
nature and necessity of decay. Bacteria in relation to disease should also
be emphasized. The experiments to be performed and the topics expected to
be covered follow.
CONDITIONS FAVORABLE AND UNFAVORABLE FOR GROWTH OF BACTERIA. (Use bouillon
cultures.) Effect of intense heat, sterile bouillon exposed to air, effect
of boiling, effect of cold, effect of antiseptics (corrosive sublimate,
carbolic acid, boric acid, formalin, etc.), effect of large amounts of
sugar and salt and the relation of this to preserving, etc. Bring out
practical application of principles demonstrated. Discuss sterilization in
medicine and surgery, cold storage, canning, sterilization, _e.g._
laundries, etc., use of antiseptics, preserving by means of salt and sugar.
Microscopic demonstration of bacteria. Methods of reproduction. Importance
in causing organic decay, fixation of nitrogen, various useful forms in
cheese making, butter ripening, etc. Harmfulness of bacteria as disease
producers. Specific diseases discussed: tuberculosis, typhoid, infective
colds, blood poisoning, etc. Vaccination. Antitoxins begun--continued after
knowledge of human body is gained. Work of Lister and Pasteur.
Nineteenth and twentieth weeks. REVIEW AND EXAMINATIONS.