Obvious punctuation errors have been repaired silently.Word errors have been corrected and a listof corrections can be found after the book.
By a Committee from the
Biology Round Table of the Chicago
High Schools
D. C. Heath & Co., Publishers
Boston — New York — Chicago
Copyright, 1911,
By D. C. Heath & Co.
1 E 3
The following guide to the study of animals is intendedfor pupils in secondary schools. It was prepared by theauthors at the request of the Biology Round Table, anassociation composed of the teachers of Biology in theChicago High Schools, to whom the authors wish to takethis opportunity of expressing their appreciation of themany helpful suggestions and criticisms of the manuscript.
The time has passed when a high school course inzoölogy consists simply of a somewhat simplified editionof a similar course in college. All teachers now recognizethat the motivization of any course should be itsadaptability to the needs of the student, and that zoölogymust be taught from the standpoint of the student ratherthan that of the subject. In preparing this guide, theauthors have tried to keep these points in mind.
The matter of presentation, the order of topics, and thechoice of material has been much discussed, but the trendof opinion has finally set in toward an ecological ratherthan a type study of animals; that there should be in thecase of young students a brief study of rather a largenumber of animals to bring out some general biologicallaw, rather than an exhaustive study of a very few types.It is further recognized that the use of a reference libraryis absolutely essential in connection with and to supplementthe laboratory work, as there are some topics beyondthe ability of the young student for original investigationas well as impossible in the amount of time usually allottedto the subject in our crowded curricula. Of great importanceis the economic side of zoölogy, especially its bearingupon the applied sciences of medicine, sanitation, householdscience, and agriculture, and this phase has receivedspecial attention in this guide.
The desirability of field work has always been recognized,but the special conditions under which schools mustwork are so variable as to make any set directions forfield work of little value, and so they have in most casesbeen omitted in this work. Each teacher can easily givesuch special direction for collecting material and studyin the field as the locality of the school and the time availablefor it shall determine.
Since zoölogy will probably be the pupil's first laboratoryscience, the authors have preceded the more formal portionof the manual with a series of short exercises onfamiliar and easily obtained animals in order to introducethe pupil to the laboratory method and to stimulate hisinterest,