VOL. 7, NO. 11
GRADE-SCHOOL METHODS AN ASSET
2703
poor reading habits. In many instances the poor habits can be corrected by the use of proper remedial measures. High-school chemistry teachers will find improvement in their work through a study of the methods of silent reading as practiced in the grade schools. Teachers in the elementary field know the value of a good assignment. They know that a study of any unit will fail in educational results unless it is preceded by a good assignment. Grade teachers aim to make their assignments delinite and specific because they are dealmg with immature minds. The assignment is motivated and made as a definite unit. The pupil is shown that his lesson is an answer to some definite problem. The teacher shows the pupil how to attack the new problem and then how to study it by studying with him. The teacher tells many interesting things about the new content which is not found in the textbook, and thus tries to overcome the pupil's reluctance for further reading. In the making and motivating of chemistry assignments the high-school teacher can learn much by a study of elementary-school methods. In the grade schools the teacher individualizes instruction to an extent undreamed of by many high-school teachers. The elementary teacher is a friend and adviser to the pupil and in many instances in closer relationship to the child than the home. The successful grade teacher is serving as the best kmd of a guidance counselor. By watching the grade teacher at work the high-school teacher will learn the methods of individualized instruction rather than mass teaching, and become better able to serve as guide and c counselor to the pupils. Much material is taught in the grades through dramatization and visualized instruction. Some high schools have made progress along this line, but much can yet be learned from the expert grade teacher. Chemistry is a subject which naturally lends itself to instruction through dramatization or visualized instruction. The secondary-schoolteacher must in the future make wider use of both dramatization and visualization. In dealing with younger minds the elementary school teacher has been forced to practice modern educational methods. In many ways more expert teaching is done in this field than in the secondary schools, and chemistry teachers who make a study of elementary educational methods will improve themselves as teachers.
Rubber Explodes When Overworked. Strange is the behavior of ordinary, eomman rubber. Like water, it is non-compressible, but like a gas it stores as heat work done an it when it is strained and stressed. And rubber has been stressed so severely and so rapidly that it heated up and exploded, Walter C. Keys, of Detroit, Michigan, reported recently to the American Society for Testing Materials. Mr. Keys said that badly overloaded solid tires have been known to explode.-Science Sem'ce
