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THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
[No. 7

There might also be included in the course experiments to explain the composition of air and water, and the process and products of combustion; solutions and the change of temperature when, say, common salt or ammonium-nitrate is dissolved in water; filtration; the action of acids on carbonates, and of expired air upon lime-water, &c.

The work thus indicated for Standard IV. might be continued in the upper classes by taking up one of the courses of elementary science prescribed by the regulations under the Manual and Technical Instruction Act.

57. The following rough notes are given as an indication of the topics from which there may be selected subjects for a course of lessons suitable for a Standard IV. class in a country school. [In schools with 41 to 90 in average attendance it will be found convenient, probably, to take Standard III. and Standard IV. together; and in schools with a sole teacher in charge Standard IV. to Standard VI., or Standard III. to Standard V., may profitably be grouped for these lessons.]

Preliminary Work.—It is presumed that in the earlier standards lessons on objects will have been given with the purpose of teaching children to observe carefully and intelligently the simpler facts of animal and plant life as it may be seen around them, and that these lessons will have been grouped systematically so as to include, for instance, some of the following subjects: Man, rabbit, sheep, cow, horse, pig, dog, cat; fowl, duck, pigeon, sparrow, lark, blackbird, starling, one or more of the native birds of New Zealand; frog; eel, trout, rock-cod, sole; crab, cray-fish, snail, oyster; spider, butterfly, beetle, &c.; bean, pea, sow-thistle, oat or wheat, ryegrass, cocksfoot, potato, rose, lily, sunflower, carrot, turnip; fern, moss, mushroom, mildew, yeast; gorse or broom; New Zealand flax; willow, oak, white-pine, red-beech (commonly called “birch”); apple, plum, orange, gooseberry, strawberry; cabbage, radish, mustard; tomato; common trees and other plants found in the neighbourhood of the school.

In Standard IV. this work will be continued and still further systematized, and the children will begin, if they have not done so already, to keep nature-calendars and weather-calendars.

In their geography lessons the children will also learn from actual observation the simplest and most striking facts about rivers and the work of water on the earth’s surface; clouds, rain, dew; cardinal points; the direction of winds; drawing of plans; height of the sun at different times of the day and year.

The drawing of plans may extend to the mensuration of squares and rectangles as set forth in the elementary course of physics suggested above.

Some such experiments and observations as the following may also be made. [The actual experiments and the work of caring for the plants, &c., should be done by the children individually.]

Raise seedlings of beans and peas in small pots or shallow dishes in sand and in garden-soil, planting seeds every two or three days; also raise other seedlings between two sheets of blotting-paper on a glass plate or in a saucer. Soak a few seeds also in water, and put a few into dry sand. Compare the seedlings raised. Observe the method of germination and growth. Note the parts of the seedlings—rootlets, root-hairs, stem, leaves, plant-hairs, &c. Raise in like manner seedlings of vegetable-marrow, mustard or radish, cabbage, sunflower, oat or wheat, and ryegrass. Observe the seeds after some days’ growth. Moisten some fine wheaten flour. Knead it, and then wash out all the white powder (nearly all starch), and show the gluten. By crushing seeds of flax, sunflower, rape, between dry blotting-paper show that some seeds contain oily matter. What has become of these things in the seedlings? Suspend seedlings of various kinds so that only the root-hairs just dip into water. Note what happens after a few days.

Make solutions of salt, sugar, aniline, &c., in water; filter. Distil the solution of salt, and condense water again. What is left behind? What is found in the condenser?

Put some small growing plant through a split cork in a wide-mouthed bottle so that the roots dip into a solution of aniline. After an interval observe the leaves. Take six or eight large, healthy leaves; pass the petioles through three or four holes in each of two cards, and put the cards over two tumblers nearly full of water. After a short interval invert two dry empty tumblers over the cards; place one set of leaves in the sunshine, and one in a shady place. After ten minutes observe what has taken place. From which set of leaves has there been most evaporation?

Take a leaf from a young plant whose roots have been placed in water; put it back downwards on a polished metal surface, and leave it