1088
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
[No. 32

this kind, yet the idea and spirit of it may be carried out in other ways. The most important parts of the lessons on geography may be thus described; some of the best subjects for composition exercises may be led up to by questions based on the children’s own observation in their ordinary life, or in their rambles about the district; the information given in many of the reading-lessons may be tested, confirmed, supplemented, and reinforced by nature-study; drawing and modelling may serve as vehicles for nature-study and thereby gain an added interest. In short, there is hardly any subject in the school course into the teaching of which the ideas that underlie nature-study may not enter.

In schools of Grade 4 and higher grades, where it is expected that provision shall be made for a definite course of nature-study or elementary science, the remarks just made apply with equal force; even the hand-work, which may seem at first to compete with it for a place on the time-table, will be found to give material aid to nature-study. This will be most clearly seen in those branches of handwork which are of the character of applied science, such as agriculture, cottage-gardening, dairy-work, for which the habits of careful observation acquired in nature-study are the only sound foundation.

It would be well, therefore, for the teacher, when drawing up the programme of work in the several subjects of the syllabus, to have in mind a scheme of nature-study, and the various parts of the instruction should be so co-ordinated as to pursue this scheme continuously throughout the school course.

Nothing can be considered as nature-study unless it includes an actual study of things themselves by the individual children; models, pictures, and books may be valuable aids, but are not substitutes for it.

Definite Courses of Nature-study.

54. Where a separate course of nature-study is not compulsory (see clauses 30 and 33), the lessons of geography, Course A, and on health in the upper standards, will give the occasion for some definite teaching of this kind.

In schools of Grade 4 and higher grades a definite course of nature-study or elementary science, or an equivalent course of hand-work, is compulsory in classes S3 to S6 (except for girls in schools of Grades 4, 5, 6, 7, 8), and work preliminary to this should be begun in the lower classes.

The lessons given in the lower classes should be marked by two main characteristics. In the first place, they should be really lessons on objects, or on natural phenomena — that is, they should treat of things that each child in the class can see with his own eyes or can handle with his own hands; secondly, they should not be disconnected, but should form a course of lessons co-ordinated with one another and, as far as possible, with the other subjects of instruction.

The following list of topics, the material indicated in Geography Course A, and the suggestions given in clauses 55, 56, and elsewhere in these regulations will serve as indications of the kind of teaching that should be included in a definite course of nature-study:—

[It will be understood that it is not intended that common objects of manufacture or daily use should be excluded from the list of suitable topics.]

The structure of a bird; birds and their habits; the study of an egg at various stages. The structure of a well-known mammal, as a rabbit; the differences in form and habit of various mammals. The human body. The structure of a fish. Insects: the life-history of a few common insects—e.g., butterflies, moths, flies, beetles, grubs and caterpillars, hive-bees and wild bees, &c. (butterflies or moths may be reared in the school). Lizards, frogs, crabs, oysters, worms, and other forms of animal life as seen in ponds or on the sea-shore. Plants; flowers, wild and garden; roots, leaves, seeds, and fruits; the life of plants, germination and growth; the effect of light, moisture, soil, and manures. Food of plants. Trees and the common kinds of timber. Shrubs. Wheat and other useful grasses. Other useful plants. Useful vegetable products: starch may be obtained from a potato, sugar from a parsnip, beet, or carrot. Ferns. Fungi; mildew. Water, its nature and forms. Soils; clay, sand, limestone, mud, gravel, &c. Quarries; a few common rocks, minerals, and fossils; typical volcanic rocks contrasted with stratified rocks and metamorphic or altered rocks (specimens should be handled by the children). Coal. Quartz. Shingle of rivers and of the seashore. Clay; bricks and tiles. Building-stone. Pottery. Glass. Mortar; cement. Road-metal. The