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
Note the color of the grasshopper in the road; color of meadow
grasshopper; color of the caterpillars of the cabbage butterfly (green
and hard to find). Notice the shape and color of walking sticks; color
of the katydids. Note the bright color of the larvæ of potato beetle.
Why? (They are distasteful to birds, and their colors advertise the
fact.) Study the Monarch butterfly and the Viceroy. Everyday
Butterflies, p. 95 and p. 297; Ways of the Six-Footed, p. 39. Bring out
strongly in all this work that the insect in order to live must have its
special food plant and must escape notice of its enemies. This is the
proper place to begin the study of the valuable work done by birds in
destroying insects.
In addition to this general work, study especially the wasps.
Solitary Wasps: Mud daubers. Bring in their nests and examine them. Ways
of the Six-Footed, p. 96. How are the nests provisioned, and for what
purpose were they made? Find, if possible, nests of other solitary
wasps. Insect Life, p. 218, p. 262, p. 264.
Social Wasps: Bring in a deserted nest of yellow-jackets. Of what is it
made? How? What for? Do the wasps store honey? Do they live as a colony
during the winter? All these questions may be answered by a pupil who
knows of a yellow-jackets' nest in the fall and watches it during the
winter. For the teacher there are discussions of these insects in Manual
for Study of Insects, pp. 660-664. Wasps and their Ways.
Continue the butterfly collection and the butterfly calendar.
_Spring work._--In the spring, begin a collection of moths for the
schoolroom. Insect Life, p. 50. Caterpillars and Moths.
In the spring, notice when the first house-flies appear. What happens to
the house-fly in winter? (Send for Circular No. 35, second series, Div.
of Entomology of Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C., for the
life-history of the house-fly.) Explain that one female destroyed early
in the season means thousands fewer late in the season.
Encourage the children to bring to the schoolroom all sorts of flies
and compare them with the house-fly. The object of this is to
teach something of the wonderful variety of forms among small and
inconspicuous insects. Make a collection of flies for the schoolroom.
For description of flies, see Insect Life, pp. 83-84.
A good plan for the spring work is to keep the pupils interested in the
first appearance, after the vicissitudes of winter, of each insect which
it is possible for them to find. Note that insects do not appear before
their food plants appear.
_Summary of objects and methods._--The questions to be answered during
the whole year's work are: How do the Insects live,--on what do they
feed? How do they escape their enemies? What happens to them in winter?
How are the new broods started in the spring? The work is chiefly
observation, but occasional lessons may be given and stories may be told
to keep the interest in the work from flagging.
FIFTH GRADE.
_Fall work._--Study the Bees and Ants.
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