Cornell Nature-Study Leaflets: Being a selection, with revision, from the teachers' leaflets, home nature-study lessons, junior naturalist monthlies and other publications from the College of Agriculture, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., 1896-1904New York State College of Agriculture
History
Cornell Nature-Study Leaflets: Being a selection, with revision, from the teachers' leaflets, home nature-study lessons, junior naturalist monthlies and other publications from the College of Agriculture, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., 1896-1904
New York State College of Agriculture
Natural history; Nature study
The plan for the second year is to continue the study of the
life-histories of insects. The pupil, having learned the different
stages of the moths and butterflies, should learn that all insects do
not experience such marvelous changes of form.
_Fall work._--Arrange a breeding cage like figs. 288, 289, Insect Life,
p. 329, placing fresh sod in the flower pot and covering the lamp
chimney with a square of wire netting. Push the glass chimney down into
the earth so as to allow no crevices through which the insects may
escape. In such a cage, place grasshoppers and crickets of all sizes,
and study their growth. Insect Life, pp. 33-37.
Show the pupils that the young grasshopper looks like the old one except
that the wings are shorter; the same is true of crickets. Keep the sod
damp so the grass will not become dry; and when it gets too old replace
it with other sod. A good way to keep these insects alive and to keep
the children interested in them is to plant wheat and grass seed in
several flower pots, and then to move the glass chimney from pot to pot,
giving the insects fresh pasturage when needed.
As early as possible start some aquaria. Cornell Teachers' Leaflet, No.
11 (No. XII, this volume); Insect Life, pp. 330-332.
The mosquito is one of the most available insects for study in the
aquarium. Insect Life, pp. 131-136; Lessons in Nature-Study, p. 12.
The nymphs of dragon flies and damsel flies and many others may be
studied during the entire winter. Insect Life, pp. 140-142; Cornell
Teachers' Leaflet, No. 11 (No. XII, this volume); Outdoor Studies, p.
54. Those that have cannibalistic habits should be kept apart, each one
in a separate jar. They may be fed by dropping into the jar a bit of raw
beefsteak tied to the end of a string. The purpose of the string is that
the uneaten meat may be withdrawn before it decays. It should not be
left in the water more than twenty-four hours. The insects do not need
feeding more than twice a week.
_Spring work._--In the spring get new material for the aquaria. In pools
where there are many dead leaves look for the caddice worms that build
the log cabin cases, for these may be kept in aquaria that have no
running water. Insect Life, p. 149.
While we advise the introduction of the aquaria during the second year,
their use should be continued during the following four grades; there
are always new things to study in ponds and streams, and nothing so
fascinates a child as watching the movements of these little denizens of
the water.
_Summary of methods._--There need be no set lessons in the work of the
second year, unless the teacher in a few words, now and then, chooses to
call attention to certain things as the occasion seems to demand. The
object of the year's work is to teach the pupil the life histories of
insects which have no quiescent or pupa stage, and this should be
accomplished by simple observation of specimens bred in the schoolroom.
THIRD GRADE.
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