University of Maryland College Park - Terrapin / Reveille Yearbook (College Park, MD)

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8ome Advances in Science Teaching. TyTHILE it is true that chanije does not always ' ' signify advance, yet an impartial examination into the metliods now in vogue in any field of natural science must convince even an unwilling observer that in the main the movement in science teaching has been forward and not backward. It should be understood, however, that method is only a tool and that everything, therefore, depends upon the man behind the method. Hence advance along the line of teaching, just as along all lines of work, implies progress in the man as well as improvement in the tool. Owing to the rapidity with which the borders of natural science are enlarging in these latter daj ' s, the text-l)Ook of yesterday is out of date to-day. New facts have been brought to light, new truths have been discovered and the text-book statement has become misleading or only a half truth. Conse- quently it is no longer an incontestible proof of the truth of a statement to know that it forms a part of a book. Not that the text-l)Ook is of no further use in our schools and colleges; on the other hand, it is an important factor in science teaching, but unless the man behind the desk knows more than is contained within the covers of a text-book it is a case of the blind leading the blind, for both are sure to fall into a ditch. It is therefore essential that the teacher should be a maker of thought as well as an expounder of truth. The old scientists like Priestly, Huxley Darwin, Helmholtz and many others that we love to honor, labored faithfully and builded nobly, but they realized fully the boundless fields in their respective realms of science which remained still unexplored. No factor has contributed more largely to the passing away of the old text-book methods than the broaden- ing of the horizon of knowledge. And with this ex- pansion every first class institution in the land has come to realize that no man can teach successfully all the branches of natural science, but that the times demand a master in each and every field. It is nec- essary, therefor, that every scientist should know the boundary of his subject in some one direction, and to 14

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THE FACULTY.

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this end he should himself be an investigator. It is not enough that a man should think the thoughts of other men but he should, by personal investigation, bring to light the thoughts of Him who thought mat- ter and energy into being. It is not claimed that the man who is capable of indep endent investigation is necessarily the most successful in imparting knowl- edge, but, other things being equal, he who is to im- part truth can do so most successfully if he is capa- ble of bringing new phases of truth before the world. With the passing of the old text-book method, combined with other influences came the demand for specialists, not only in our educational institutions liut in all the walks of life. It is the man who can do some one thing better than any one else can do it who holds in his hand the key to success. The me- chanic that can do finer work and produce a better article than his competitor finds a ready sale for his wares. The farmer that can raise a better crop than his neighbors commands the markets of the world, and these results can be obtained only through con- centration and specialization. Under these influ- ences, the methods in science teaching advanced to the lecture and demonstration stage, which had many advantages over the text-book method in that it put more of the personality of the teacher into his work, and enabled him to collect the best thoughts from the varied sources from which thej- could be obtained and to present them in the clearest light. It brought the teacher into closer contact with nature, and enabled him to l)ring much that was new to the attention of those around him. On the other hand this method failed or was only partially successful because it brought the student into contact with his subject through only two of the avenues liy which nature intended him to gain knowledge, viz., hearing and sight, while the avenues of touch, taste, smell and the sense of temperature remained for the most part closed. It enabled the average student to see onlj ' what his teacher saw, and that often very dimi} ' . It gave to the student no adequate means of express- ing the whole truth as it appeared to him, and without expression truth is onh- dormant. However it was the instrument by means of which the student of scientific truth stood at last within the holy of holies in touch directly with nature, for gradually out of this method came the student laborator} ' . The first to make its appearance in this country was the chemical laboratory. This was followed by labora- tories for the study of botany, zoology, biology, ento- mology, physics, physiology, mechanics, pathology, horticulture, agriculture and all other branches of natural science with their sul -divisions. The first botanical laboratory in this country was established less than a third of a century ago, and many of the laboratories for other sciences were inaugurated in still more recent years. Several causes contributed to the slowness of the growth of the student labora- 15