Natural Science

The Natural Science major is recommended for those students seeking to teach science in grades 4-9. The coursework in this major provides a foundation of scientific principles required to teach the Next Generation Science Standards leading to the Middle School Science Endorsement. There are two pathways by which the student candidate can pursue this endorsement, either in conjunction with the elementary education or secondary education degrees. This endorsement requires passing the Middle Level Science National Evaluation Series (NES) exam.

VI. Pedagogic aspects of nature study.
Relation to history and literature; to number, reading, and writing. Expression through colorpainting, drawing, modeling, and making.

VII. Nature study and training.
What is true observation ? Observations of children compared with those of adults. Evils resulting from a lack of training in observation. The use of the imagination in nature study; necessary conditions; its relation to observation. Relation of nature study to the development of the will. The discovery and appreciation of law; its universal application. Nature study as a factor in character-building.
For detailed directions for laboratory work Nature Study for the Grammar Grades (Jackman) will be used. The field work in science for the summer quarter is a general study of the type-topographic areas of the Chicago region. The work is.based upon a series of excursions to the lakeshore, lagoon and marsh area, sand dunes, ravine area (glacial till), ravine area (limestone), stream valley, etc. The study will include two considerations: (I) The investigation of each of these several areas with a view of becoming acquainted with their inorganic and organic content: mineral makeup; distribution of moisture; climatic influences; plant and animal life. (2) Field work in relation to grade teaching: aims and methods in field work; collecting materials and data; care and arrangement of materials and data for class study; collected materials as permanent equipment (the school museum).
Suggestions in field work.-Elementary education must be thought of in terms of development. Environment is recognized as a potent factor in all organic, intellectual, or social development; that the same general environment varies greatly in its influence on the residents of a region requires no argument. Interwoven with the study of materials, phenomena, and processes in all field work, topographic and industrial, is the more important study of that interrelation of the human being to environment which stimulates him to intelligent thought and action. Variation (change) is the starting-point of progress in the organic and social world. An area viewed as "everlasting hills" and never-changing valleys can have little influence as a stimulus in intellectual development. The same area, viewed as an ever-changing landscape,. rendering necessary a constant readjustment of its plant and animal life, becomes infinite in its possibilities as a stimulus to thought and action. Every type of area may thus be looked upon as a unit of environment. Our problem is to bring ourselves into such relation to these units of environment that their latent possibilities may become potent influences in our lives.
The field study is from the standpoint of topographic change and the influence of this change upon the occurrence, form, and distribution of plant and animal life. The conditions giving rise to a pond topography are varied. In the Chicago area three distinct origins may be recognized, each of which will be treated in its special area. (I) Pond formed by a sand-bar or beach line separating a portion of water from the main lake body; the first stage in this separation may be observed a short distance south of Edgewater; a second and a third stage may be seen in the area at Seventy-first street and the lakeshore. (2) Ponds formed by cut-offs in a stream; this is well developed along Thorn creek, between Thornton and Glenwood. (3) Ponds formed in the depressions on the irregular surface of the old glacial moraine, characteristic of the north shore area.
In each of these origins we recognize that there must have been a difference at the initial stages in the soil, water, and climate environment of each area, and that owing to these differences the story of the development of its life content must differ in several respects. A study of these ponds should aid us in securing some evidence of their origin, the changes they have undergone in reaching their present stage, the relation of these changes to their present soil, water, and life-content.
Our special effort should be to collect evidences of change in the area, the nature and cause of this change, and its influence upon the past and present life of the area. The following outline is a consideration of the south shore area, with special reference to the origin and development of its beach-pond-prairie topography, and the influence of this development upon the past and present life content of the area.

LAKESHORE.
Acquaint yourself with the nature and distribution of the material along the lakeshore; the forces that are acting upon this material, and the part that each plays in determining its form and distribhtion. Examine the shore and the shallow water of the lake for evidence of plant life growing within the water border; conditions favorable and unfavorable to plant life in this border area. List the animal forms of which you see or detect evidences within or over this water area. Consider the conditions which invite the presence of these animals.
Observe the shore for evidences of birds or insect life; try to determine the attraction offered by the shore to these forms of life. Examine the broad beach area, and list the plants found within it; observe their rooting, their foliage as to the character of the leaves .and the comparative leaf surface; the influence of this vegetation on the moving sand. What determines the approach of this vegetation to the lake ? What conditions in the area are most severe on plant life? What special adaptations enable the plants to survive these conditions ? RECENT LAGOON.
Try to determine the conditions that have given origin to this lagoon. Determine as fully as possible the plant and animal content of this body of water; list the vegetation growing on the lagoon border. By the aid of a trowel examine the sand along the border of the lagoon to a depth of a foot; note any variation in color, and account for this variation. Examine the sandbank west of this lagoon, and note any variation in the nature of its soil material. Make a special study of a vertical section of the old beach, and note any variation in character or coloring of the materials and evidences of stratification. Try to locate the surface area corresponding to these vertical layers. List the plant life seemingly characteristic of each special area. Note any evidences of animal life in the wooded area.
Materials to be collected for special class study: Soil from the sand area to determine its moisture content, and also from the woodland area. Soil from the sand area, the lagoon border, the vertical bank, and the woodland area, to determine its organic material. Plants from the sand area, to determine their rates of transpiration, and their moisture content.

THE SWAMP-PRAIRIE
AREA.
Note the topography and character of the soil material of the swamp margin. The conditions which give rise to this topography. Try to determine whether the swamp has either decreased or increased in its original size. Using a piece of gas pipe, collect the soil to a depth of a foot or more from