Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, September 1899: Vol. LV, May to October, 1899Various
Science
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, September 1899: Vol. LV, May to October, 1899
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
Another feature of The Teachers' School of Science should not remain
unnoticed. It consists of effective work in zoölogy and geology by Mr.
A. W. Grabau, the official guide in the museum and a graduate student
of geology. A course of lessons on The Shore Animals of New England
was begun by him in April, 1897. Directly connected with these field
lessons was held a class in laboratory work, which was attended by
about twenty persons.
The next year Mr. Grabau endeavored to give his audience a
comprehensive view of the action of cold and heat, of winds and waves,
rain and rivers, and of the chemical effect of the atmosphere in the
production of the natural features of the earth's surface, by giving
eight lectures on The Surface of the Earth, its Rocks, Soils, and
Scenery. Special attention was given to the scenery of New England,
and this awakened an interest in local scenery, which interest led to
Mr. Grabau giving several lectures in surrounding towns, under local
auspices. One of these lectures called the attention of the people of
Arlington, Massachusetts, to the fact that they had in their midst a
valuable geological monument, and led them to start a movement for the
preservation of a terminal bowlder moraine on Arlington Heights, which
is the only good accessible example of such moraine near Boston.
Under the same instruction ten lessons were given on the use of the
microscope and the preparation of specimens of hydroids.
The work begun at the winter lectures was continued during the spring
by excursions to the seashore. The beaches of Revere, Swampscott,
Marblehead; the cliffs and tide pools of Nahant, Marblehead Neck, and
Nantasket, and the mud flats and piles of Beverly, were explored. One
excursion was made to the outer shore of Cape Cod and Buzzards Bay.
The party spent four days on this excursion.
During the early part of the summer an outing was made to Bayville,
Maine, where a laboratory was furnished, with microscopes and other
accessories, and fourteen persons (mostly teachers) devoted ten days
to the study of marine fauna, special attention being given to
hydroids. Some geology was studied during this excursion, and a small
island mapped. Those who attended this expedition were delighted with
an experience new to most of them, as many of them had not before
studied zoölogy and knew not what a field could be opened by the study
of natural history. One of the party afterward remarked, "I feel as if
I had been born into a new world, so different are these things in
their homes from their representations in books."
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