Beloit Memorial High School - Beloiter Yearbook (Beloit, WI)

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r.. l SCIENCE. The work in the Science department includes five subjectsg three of them, chemistry, botany and physics, being carried for a full year each, and the other two, physical geography and geology, being combined to make one year's work. All of this work is required of the regular students, with the exception that in the Junior year they have an option of taking either botany, which is in the Latin-Science course, or chemistry, which belongs to the German-Science course. The work is arranged to meet the demands of the college en- trance requirements, but in amount is much more than that demands, and serves to give the student a very good introduction J, H, ADAMS QPRINCIPALL to severaldepartments oi science. SCIENCE AND GERMAN DEP 1'S- The headquarters of this depart- ment are in a room in the basement of the high school building. This has been fitted up as a laboratory, and is used for a recita- tion room as well. The equipment is very good for a high school course. The former teachers are to be connnended for their work in preparing the fine, large collection of specimens in the museum, which aid very materially in illustrating the work in natural science. There is a fine collection of mounted zoological speci- mens, although no course in that subject is oliered in the school at present. There is also a large collection of minerals, fossils and other geological specimens for the use of the geology class, and this class goes each year on an excursion to the Blue Hills, about twenty-five miles southwest of here, to hunt and collect specimens and to observe the structure and formation of the hills and the

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cile contradictory views, and at last reach probable conclusions. This is true of the merchant, the manufacturer, the farmer, and others. This same method is used in forming historical conclu- sions, and helps make history one of the most practical of school studies. It has been said that the most importantgift of acitizen in such a profession as politics, or law, or medicine, or teaching, or war, is ability in the selection of the premises from which the solution ofthe various problems of life are to be extracted, and that soundness of judgment and clearness of perception in collect- ing and arranging these premises is a large part of each manls or woman's workin the world. The proper study of history gives practice and insight into the solution of these problems and de- velopes this ability. As a knowledge of facts is necessary before a proper interpretation can be given to those facts, the earlier years of historical study are given almost exclusively to-the ac- quisition of facts. 'By the time a student reaches the high school he should be able to do some work in interpreting facts, and dur- ing the high school course much practice should he given in this kind of work. A The American Historical Association has recommended that the course of study in history in high schools be: First year, Ancient history to SOO A. D., second year, mediaeval and modern European history 5 third year, English history 5 fourth year, American history. This plan has been accepted by nearly all the colleges and universities in the country, and is strongly recom- mended by the University of Kansas. At present the Beloit High School offers two years of this work. The work in ancient history is given in the Sophomore year and the American history in the Senior year. So 'far as is practicable under existing conditions the plan followed is a combination ofthe library and the text- book methods. The high school library is very well supplied with reference books and books for collateral reading. A certain amount of collateral reading is required of all students. In each of the courses each student also makes a series of historical maps illustrating the growth and development of the country he is studying. At theend of the course he then has an historical atlas of his own making. 'R This is in accordance with the latest and most approved methods of historical study. It may be said that it is perhaps within the range of possibility that an additional year's work in history may be offered in the Beloit High School by next year.

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many other facts of geological interest which can be observed there to good ad vantage. - The equipment for work in chemistry and physics is intended for the demonstration of principles and theories by actual experi- ments by the instructor, and by the students themselves wherever practicable. The work in botany emphasizes particularly the laboratory method of studying the subject. Each student plants seeds of various kinds of plants, studying the process of their germina- tion and growth, and the various phases of plant life are studied from the plants themselves. In the spring the text is laid aside almost entirely, and the work is devoted to studying the develop- ment, arrangement and structure of the various organs and parts of the plants as they appear. Each student is required to collect, mount, describe and classify a number of plants as a part of the permanent collection. The object of the course is to make the student familiar with plants instead of with a text-book. GERMAN. Two years, work is given in German. It is arranged to cor- respond with the work required and outlined for college prepara- tory work. The first year is taken up mainly with a thorough drill in the grammar and translations of easy exercises illustrating the various constructions. A reader is begun in the second term of thefirst year, and conversation based on the work is attempted to accustom the student to the spoken language. In the second year the grammar is reviewed, the reader finished, some short classics are read, and in the last term Schil1er's masterpiece, Wilhelm Tell, is read. Throughout the work the students practice conversation and commit to memory many selections of poetry and patriot-ic songs. The time given to the study of German is not expected to make a student a master of the language, or even proficient in the use of it. If the student is able to understand the underlying principles of the language, appreciate some of the beauties of its literature, get a better insight and understanding of his own lan- guage through comparison, and can make himself, even imper- fectly, understood by the use of what German he has acquired, we feel that the time is profitably spent. ,