Report of the Committee, consisting of Professor A. C. HADDON, Professor W. A. HERDMAN, and Mr. W. E. HOYLE (Secretary), appointed for improving and experimenting with a Deep-sea Tow-net, for opening and closing under water.

THE Committee have devised and had constructed an improved form of the apparatus for opening and closing the tow-net by an electric current, which will be exhibited at the forthcoming meeting of the Association. Their efforts to obtain an opportunity for experimenting in deep water have not been successful, and hence the money destined for the purchase of an electric cable of considerable length has not been expended. The Committee suggest that they should be reappointed, and a sum of 401. (including an unspent balance of 271. 14s. 6d., which has been returned to the Treasurer) should be intrusted to them.

Report of the Committee, consisting of Dr. J. H. GLADSTONE (Chairman), Professor H. E. ARMSTRONG (Secretary), Mr. S. BOURNE, Dr. CROSSKEY, Mr. G. GLADSTONE, Mr. J. HEYWOOD, Sir JOHN LUBBOCK, Sir PHILIP MAGNUS, Professor N. STORY MASKELYNE, Sir H. E. ROSCOE, Sir R. TEMPLE, and Professor S. P. THOMPSON, appointed for the purpose of continuing the inquiries relating to the teaching of Science in Elementary Schools.

LAST year your Committee had to report very considerable changes in the code of regulations issued by the Education Department which bore upon instruction in scientific subjects in elementary schools, and also certain additions to the Science and Art directory consequent thereon. As these only began to take effect from September 1 last the returns of the Education Department, issued this year, which extend down to August 31, deal entirely with the results of examinations under the old code. They are therefore strictly comparable with those of the seven preceding years.

The following table gives the number of departments of schools in which the several class subjects have been examined by H.M. Inspector during each twelve months :

26,547 24,787 25,347

The number of scholars examined in the scientific specific subjects during the same period is as follows:

Specific Subjects.- -Children

Algebra

:

1882-3 1883-4 1884-5 1885-6 1886-7 1887-8 1888-9 1889-90

Euclid and Mensuration

Number of scholars in Standards V., VI., and VII.

82,965 84,499 79,774 78,477 78,122

286,355 325,205 352,860 393,289 432,097 472,770 490,590 495,164

The first of these tables shows that, while during the year there were 151 more departments that took at least one class subject, there were 196

3,527

4,844

6,315

6,961

9,524

977 11,453

128

33 17,338

331 16,940

127

209

15,893

15,842

1,589

1,598

1,944

1,830

79,985 83,420 90,151

more in which geography was taught; while, on the other hand, there were only 32 in all that took up elementary science, the lowest record of any of the years under review.

On comparing the figures for the several specific subjects in the second table with the number of scholars qualified to take any two of them under the rules of the Code, it will be found that there has been an important increase over the previous year in the study of algebra, mechanics, chemistry, and magnetism and electricity; but if the comparison be made with the year 1885-6, or any of the preceding years, it will be found that this year's return still shows a relative, if not an absolute, falling off in the study of every one of the subjects, except mechanics and chemistry.

The general result shows that the slight turn in the tide as to the percentage of scholars tanght these specific subjects as compared with the number that might have taken them, which was just remarked in last year's report, has been more than maintained. It will be apparent from the following table :

This result is mainly due to the operations of the School Boards for London, Liverpool, Birmingham, and Nottingham, which have given much attention to the teaching of mechanics, in some cases under the peripatetic system and in others in special schools.

The code of regulations which has been issued this year by the Education Department contains only two alterations that call for notice.

The one consists of the following note to the work required under the head of Arithmetic in Standard IV. (Schedule I.):-The scholars in Standards V., VI., and VII. should know the principles of the metric system, and be able to explain the advantages to be gained from uniformity in the method of forming multiples and sub-multiples of the unit. As a preparation for this it will be useful to give in Standard IV. elementary lessons on the notation of decimal fractions.' This reintroduces the study of the metric system which was dropped in the year 1874.

The other is the addition of another alternative course of elementary science (Schedule II., Course I.), called 'lessons on common things.' course laid down for the several standards is as follows:-

The

'Standards I. and II.-Thirty object lessons on the chief tribes of animals

and their habits, and on common plants and their growth.

'Standard III.-Common inorganic substances and their properties. 'Standard IV.-Simple mechanical laws in their application to common

life and industries. Pressure of liquids and gases.

'Standard V.-Simple chemical laws in their application to common life and industries.

'Standard VI.-Outlines of physiology in its bearing on health and

work.

'Standard VII.-Other simple physical laws, such as those of light, heat, &c.'

It is doubtful whether this will prove acceptable, as it involves a wider range of study than any of those going before, in which the same subject is carried onward from year to year. In so far, however, as the title is concerned, the institution of this Course marks an advance in views, and is a valuable recognition of the principle that in teaching science in elementary schools it is important to base the instruction on common objects generally.

Last year the National Association for the Promotion of Technical Education endeavoured to obtain some modifications of the alternate courses of elementary science in Schedule II., and your Committee also drew especial attention to certain points of which they disapproved. No alteration, however, has been made. They can only express the hope that this important schedule will be carefully revised for the code of next year; and it seems highly desirable that the revision should be carried out with the assistance of some of the teachers who have given special attention to methods of teaching science.

It is stated at pp. 28, 29 of the Code that it is intended that the instruction in elementary science shall be given mainly by experiment and illustration. If these subjects are taught by definition and verbal description, instead of making the children exercise their own powers of observation, they will be worthless as means of education.' It is here clearly implied that the object of instruction in elementary science is to lead the children to exercise their powers of observation; but it is much to be feared that the methods generally adopted in teaching the subject do not satisfy this requirement, and it is highly important that ampler instructions should be placed before teachers. Valuable and instructive as are class lessons, whether 'conversational object lessons' or lessons freely illustrated by experiment, experience shows that their effect is but too often ephemeral; and, above all, it is to be feared that they do little towards developing the power of independent observation, as in such lessons children do not learn to do things themselves, but gain their information from the teacher.

The Committee desire most strongly to urge that the time has now come when every effort should be made to introduce experimental lessons, especially measurement lessous, into schools; in other words, that the children should be set to do simple experimental exercises themselves, not merely to attend lessons, listening to and taking notes of what is said. It is now clearly recognised that even in the case of students of a far higher grade than those in the elementary schools practical instruction should always accompany lectures and demonstrations, and this must be all the more necessary in the case of young children. In the higher standards not only the observing faculties, but also the reasoning faculties, should be brought fully into play in the practical lessons. It may be added that in the course of the measurement lessons, even in the lower standards, opportunity would be given to the children to compare the English with the metric system, and thus the knowledge of this latter, which is now required of the higher standards, would be easily acquired.

If attention be once directed in the Code to the necessity for instruction of the kind suggested being given, there can be no doubt that suitable sets of practical exercises will soon be devised and carried into practice. The non-recognition of their importance is at present the chief bar to the introduction of such practical exercises.

Science demonstrators have recently been appointed by the School 1891.

CC

Board for London, in addition to those referred to in former reports, who are endeavouring to initiate practical work by the scholars in a number of the schools under their charge. The results of their work are to be awaited with interest, as there can be no doubt that when it is once shown that children in elementary schools can be taught to experiment for themselves, and thereby acquire the habits of accurately observing and later on of reasoning from observation, no great delay will arise in introducing such teaching into schools generally.

There is little hope that any but specially trained teachers will be able satisfactorily to conduct experimental teaching with the object of incul cating scientific habits of mind. Hence, bearing in mind the probability that a revolution in methods of teaching is clearly foreshadowed, and that the action of the Government in providing funds for technical instruction is having a most important influence in encouraging applied science teaching, it would seem highly desirable that the teachers in training should be prepared to do what will be required of them. As it will be their object to teach scientific method, it is all-important that their own training in this direction should be as ample as possible, and that they should be led to recognise more clearly than is done at present what is the object to be gained in introducing elementary science into schools; that the use of facts- not mere facts-is to be taught.

Though the scholars of elementary schools who are working in the standards are excluded from participation in the grant out of the beer and spirit duties, the application of this fund will have an indirect influence upon elementary education, and your Committee note with satisfaction that throughout England and Wales only two counties have refused to apply any portion of the grant to technical education, and that all the rest, with the exception of eight, have applied the entire grant to that purpose. This extension of technical instruction among the ex-standard children, and the scholars in evening schools, will render the preparatory work in the elementary schools all the more important.

Third Report of the Committee, consisting of Sir J. N. DOUGLASS, Professor OSBORNE REYNOLDS, Professor W. C. UNWIN, and Messrs. W. TOPLEY, E. LEADER WILLIAMS, W. SHELFORD, G. F. DEACON, A. R. HUNT, W. H. WHEELER, W. ANDERSON, and H. BAMFORD, appointed to investigate the Action of Waves and Currents on the Beds and Foreshores of Estuaries by means of Working Models.

[PLATES II-XIV.]

THE Committee held a meeting in the rooms of Mr. G. F. Deacon, 32 Victoria Street, Westminster (July 29, 1891), and considered the results obtained since the last report. Professor Reynolds reported that by the date of the meeting of the British Association the objects of the investigation would be accomplished, and suggested that it would not be necessary to continue the investigation beyond that date or to apply to the Association for reappointment. These suggestions were adopted, and it was resolved that the thanks of the Committee be communica'ed to the