652 SCHOOL SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS

CHEMISTRY SYMPOSIUM.*

7. What to Put in a Notebook.II. When and Where Should the Notebook be Written Up.

Ill’. Corrections of Notebooks.(Continued from the October number.)

LABORATORY NOTEBOOK IN CHEMISTRY.

BY HARRY CLIFFORD DOANE^Central High School, Grand Rapids’, Mich.

I. What to put in the notebook.The makeup of the notebook will in a measure depend upon

whether we wish our pupils to produce beautiful notebooks forshow and to present at college or to make them simply for theirvalue as a means of teaching chemistry. For myself, I holdthat the notebook should be for the purpose of teaching only.While there is a certain value in the ability to produce fine look-ing notebooks and we should never in any school work neglectthe items of neatness and appearance, yet we are teaching chem-istry, and the making of notebooks should be incidental.The notes should be as brief as is consistent with good work,

to save the pupiFs time of writing and to save the teacher’stime and effort in correcting. We should strive to reduce theroutine drudgery as much as possible. Some teachers are slavesof the routine work. The teacher who puts all his energy intolooking over papers and notebooks robs his class of the enthu-siasm that he should put into his work.

In my own laboratory work I have prepared the directionswith a view to reducing the amount of the notes to the min-imum. � The notes are on loose leaves and are bound into thesame cover with the directions. Each question has its individualnumber and the pupil writes only the result or answer, repeat-ing only such of the directions as is necessary to definite state-ment. No descriptions of apparatus are required, as this wouldbe simply repetition from the directions. The pupil does nottell what he has- done, but what has happened. The notes arecomplete only when read in connection with the directions. Thismethod reduces the work of looking over books fully one half.

In using this plan it is quite necessary to insist that the num-bering of each result and answer in the notes shall correspondexactly with that in the directions. This is no loss to the pupil.

Clu^^-^lT^ the conference of Chemistry, a section of the Michigan Schoolmasters

CHEMISTRY SYMPOSIUM 053

Our pupils need to gain the ability to follow a prescribed form.This scheme can be much more easily carried out if the

teacher prepares his own laboratory manual, and this is alwayspreferable. It enables one better to adapt the work to his timeand equipment than by selecting from a manual prepared bysomeone else. It also gives one an opportunity to carry outhis own pet notions, which has its value. We will do betterwork in our own way than in a manner prescribed by someonewith a different viewpoint.

II, When and where should the notebook be written upfTo my mind this is not a debatable question. Of course, more

work can be accomplished by allowing the notes to be preparedoutside of the laboratory, but it is invariably destructive of inde-pendent work on the part of some pupils. There are those whowill always copy from others under such conditions. Some as-sistance will be obtained where the notes are prepared in thelaboratory, but to a much less extent. The ideal laboratorywould be equipped with individual desks and each experimentwould be performed individually. Then we could reduce theelement of illegitimate assistance to the minimum. However,there are some experiments on which it seems wise to allow twopupils to work together, especially in a laboratory like ours inthe Grand Rapids Central High School, where there are no ven-tilating hoods and no special ventilation at each desk.

This matter of illegitimate help is a serious one. Our schoolsare permeated with this sort of dishonesty and I suppose havealways been to a greater or less extent, but we need to rememberthat one of the most important objects of school is to teach hon-esty and every teacher should frequently impress the need andvalue of honesty by percept. It is far more important that weteach honesty than chemistry.

III. Correction of notebooks.I can best give you my ideas of the proper correction of a

chemistry notebook by describing the method that I use. Thenotes of the first two or three experiments are written in penciland corrected by the instructor before being placed in the note-book. This is to familiarize the pupil with what is required.Thereafter the notes are put directly in the notebook in ink.After each week’s work the notes are corrected by the instructorwith a pencil. Letters are used to indicate the more commonerrors. If the difficulty is too complicated to be easily indicated

654 SCHOOL SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS

it is marked with a "C," meaning "Consult instructor." Thepupil then so corrects the notes as to make them read correctly,making the corrections show as little as possible, trying againsuch parts of the experiments as are marked for retrial. Hethen brings, the notes to the instructor for approval during thelaboratory period. This gives an opoprtunity for questioning.When the corrections are completed the instructor affixes hisinitials with a rubber stamp. The pencil corrections may thenbe erased by the pupil.

This method will not produce fine looking notebooks for anyexcept the best pupils. Corrections and interlineations are toomany. The same method practically might be followed with asaving in the appearance of the books by having the notes foreach experiment written on a separate sheet. Then the correc-tions could be made under the title "corrections" following theoriginal notes. I am not sure, however, that this would be animprovement and it is hardly feasible in our school where thenotebook paper is furnished by the institution.

I find that the making of corrections by the pupil is more ofa test of his ability than the original making of notes. Fre-quently where the notes of two pupils are of about the samevalue one will proceed intelligently with the corrections andthe other will not. This demonstrates the necessity of havingthe pupil correct the notes and repeat those parts of the experi-ments in which he has failed to observe correctly the results.The practice followed by many teachers of simply markingerrors at random intervals or at the end of the semester andnot having the pupil make corrections may possibly be all rightin some subjects, but it has most serious objections in chemistry.

Attention should be given to errors in spelling, punctuation.grammatical construction, and all that goes to make technicallycorrect English. Too many teachers are careless in such mat-ters in their own writing as well as in the correction of pupil’snotes. One of the most important duties that falls to the scienceteacher, both in the recitation and in written work, is the teach-ing of the accurate use of words. While the English teacher issupposed to teach precision in the use of words, yet in the effortfor variety of expression the pupil sometimes loses sight of this.One of my pupils, who was specializing in literature at col-

lege, told me that he found that the work in high school chem-istry and physics had done much for his composition. In these

CHEMISTRY SYMPOSIUM 655

he learned to write accurately and definitely. I believe that wecan perform the same service for many of our pupils. We mustgive some attention to the teaching of accurate English if wedo all things with the thoroughness and accuracy that are sup-posed to belong to good science work.The ability to do things in a prescribed way and the putting

of matter into prescribed forms is important in practical life.The inability to do so indicates a certain lack of self-mastery.The laboratory notebook may be made an excellent means ofgaining this power.

It has been my privilege to serve for several years as a mem-ber of the committee which audits the accounts of the officersof pupils’ organizations in our school. We find that not halfof our juniors or seniors can follow the simple directions whichare prescribed for these accounts and the directions are such asto require no previous knowledge of bookkeeping. The bovor girl who can write up his notebook properly as directed canhand in businesslike accounts to the auditing committee. Thissimply illustrates the practical side of the matter. It is not al-ways a bad thing when some of our pupils think that we areover particular in insisting that work be done our way andnot theirs.The notebooks are a burden ’to the teacher. Let us make them

as little so as is consistent with first class work. Still, sometimesso dry and prosy a thing as a notebook may be the source ofamusement. One of my boys said that there was left in thebottom of his evaporating dish a sentiment. We may not havethought of laboratory work as productive of sentiments, but wecertainly do know that it is frequently a source of joy both topupil and teacher.

THE CHEMISTRY NOTEBOOK;

BY F. C. IRWIN,Detroit Central High School.

In writing the notebook we ask the pupils to state, 1st, thename and purpose of the experiment; 2nd, familiar materialsin which the substance occurs and materials most convenientfor preparing it; 3rd, the apparatus used in its preparation andcollection; 4th, the record of a series of tests to determine itsmost characteristic physical and chemical properties, and 5th,