In the germination tests of alfalfa seed in the spring of 1930, one seed was discovered with two embryos. They were both normal in all structures, equal in size and behaved normally in germination. Multiple embryo sacs in the ovules of alfalfa are frequent, but it has been supposed that not more than one is able to mature and function. The presence of two embryos is evidence that two embryo sacs may mature and function

Lantz, C. W.

English

By means of a questionnaire a study has been made of the biological sciences in 130 high schools in Iowa. The relation of the biological sciences to the other high school sciences is considered, and information has been collected concerning methods of presentation, content of courses, objectives, and training of the teacher

University of Northern Iowa

Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science Volume 36 Annual Issue Article 43 1929 The Status of the Biological Sciences in the High Schools of Iowa C. W. Lantz Iowa State Teachers College Copyright ©1929 Iowa Academy of Science, Inc. Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias Recommended Citation Lantz, C. W. (1929) "The Status of the Biological Sciences in the High Schools of Iowa," Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science, 36(1), 243-243. Available at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias/vol36/iss1/43 This Research is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa Academy of Science at UNI ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science by an authorized editor of UNI ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact scholarworks@uni.edu. BOTANY ABSTRACTS 243 HOW THE COLLEGE TEXTBOOKS IN BOTANY TREAT THE PRAIRIE PROBLEM B. SHIMEK The usual inadequate attention which is given to this subject is pointed out. STATE UNIVERSITY OF lowA, lowA CITY, lowA. THE PLANT LIFE OF A PRAIRIE PROVINCE IN POLK COUNTY, IOWA WINIFRED GILBERT A brief description of the topographic features of one of the bottom prairies compared with an adjacent hillside prairie on Beaver Creek. The population given in percentages. Also an ac-count of the plants recently migrated into the area. lowA STATE COLLEGE, AMES, lowA. THE STATUS OF THE BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES IN THE HIGH SCHOOLS OF row A c. w. LANTZ By means of a questionnaire a study has been made of the biological sciences in 130 high schools in Iowa. The relation of the biological sciences to the other high school sciences is con-sidered, and information has been collec.ted concerning methods of presentation, content of courses, objectives, and training of the teacher. low A STA TE TEACHERS COLLEGE, CEDAR FALLS, lowA. 1Lantz: The Status of the Biological Sciences in the High Schools of IowaPublished by UNI ScholarWorks, 1929

The Status of the Biological Sciences in the High Schools of Iowa

Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of ScienceVolume 37 | Annual Issue Article 201930The Status of the Biological Sciences in the HighSchools of IowaC. W. LantzIowa State Teachers CollegeCopyright © Copyright 1930 by the Iowa Academy of Science, Inc.Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/piasThis Research is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa Academy of Science at UNI ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion inProceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science by an authorized editor of UNI ScholarWorks. For more information, please contactscholarworks@uni.edu.Recommended CitationLantz, C. W. (1930) "The Status of the Biological Sciences in the High Schools of Iowa," Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science,37(1), 101-105.Available at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias/vol37/iss1/20THE STATUS OF THE BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES IN THE HIGH SCHOOLS OF IOWA C. w. LANTZ A study of science teaching in the high schools of the United States in the last thirty years shows some marked changes in the sciences taught, in the enrollment, and in the.nature of the courses. The following table shows the percentage enrollment in the various sciences during this period. These data are taken from a report of the Office of Education, United States Department of the Interior. 1 Table I - Percentage of high school students in science in United States SCIENCE 1900 1910 1915 1922 1928 % % % % % Astronomy 2.78 0.53 0.28 0.07 0.06 Botany 16.83 9.14 3.82 1.59 Chemistry 7.72 6.89 7.38 7.40 7.07 Geology 3.61 1.16 0.48 0.16 0.09 Physical Geography 23.37 19.34 14.58 4.28 2.72 Physics 19.04 14.61 14.23 8.93 6.85 Zoology 8.02 3.21 1.53 0.77 Physiology 27.42 15.32 9.48 5.08 2.68 Hygiene and Sanitation 6.06 7.84 General Science 18.27 17.50 Biology 6.90 8.78 13.57 Agriculture 4.66 7.17 5.11 3.66 Home Economics 3.78 12.89 14.27 16.48 Total 85.74 --·-I 83.94 91.14 83.76 80.88 There are certain facts that are very evident from a study of these statistics. Astronomy and geology have practically disap-peared in the high schools. Botany and zoology as distinct subjects are rapidly disappearing. Physics has decreased but cliemistry has maintained itself. New science subjects have appeared to take the place of the older sciences; namely, general science, biology, agri-culture, and home economics. The statistics show that if agricul-ture and home economics are included, the total percentage of en-rollment in all sciences has approximately maintained itself during this period. It seemed as if a study of the science teaching in the high schools of Iowa would be of interest. A questionnaire was sent to 1. Phillips, Frank M. Statistics of public high schools, 1927-28. Bui., No. 35, Office of Euucation, U. S. Dept. of Interior, 1929. 101 1Lantz: The Status of the Biological Sciences in the High Schools of IowaPublished by UNI ScholarWorks, 1930102 row A ACADEMY OF SCIENCE representative high schools of all sizes. As a result statistics from the replies of 126 high schools have been tabulated. These are dis-tributed from large city high schools to high schools of less than fifty in enrollment. Four points were studied: ( 1) Percentage of schools offering particular sciences. (II) Methods of biology teach-ing. (III) Objectives of biology teaching. (IV) Academic pre-paration of biology teachers. I. Scnwo:s OFFERED According to this study the percentage of sciences offered in the high schools of Iowa are as shown in the following table: Table II - Sciences Offered· and Required in Iowa High Schools ScrE1'CE OFFERED % REQUIRED % General Science 92.06 73.20 Physics 89.60 70.80 Agriculture 77.70 Biology 69.80 Physiology or Hygiene 51.50 Chemistry 20.60 Botany 4.70 Zoology 3.10 28.40 61.50 . 23.00 0.00 0.00 The following graph shows the percentage of high schools in Iowa offering the different sciences as compared with the percent-ages for the United States. These statistics are taken from Bul. GEN, SC IENCE I'P.'YSE:S .B !OLOOY :F!ITSIOI.O:JY & H'!G. & SAN~ FHYS. GEOG. CHEMISTRY BO? ANY 1-'.0ME ZCON, ACli:CnLTTJRI: 80.l~ 66.8% -1.oi: L = ""·''10 •g--·---··~--·-·=--·"·"··3~·, -------· 71.3% IOWA -Fig. I Sciences in Iowa high schools compared with the sciences in the high schools of the United States 2Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science, Vol. 37 [1930], No. 1, Art. 20https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias/vol37/iss1/20HIGH SCHOOLS OF IOWA 103 35, Office of Education, U. S. Department of the Interior, and are for the years 1927-1928. It will be noted that the total percent-ages given for Iowa in the United States report are lower than in the data collected in this study. However, the order of these per-centages is the same. The data of the two studies were for different years and this study involved fewer high schools. The above data indicate that the status of the sciences in the high schools of Iowa agrees fairly well with the status reported for these sciences for the United States. Botany and zoology are rapidly disappearing from the high schools in Iowa and biology now occupies an important place. The biology is usually an elec-tive subject. General science has become almost universal and is usually required. Physics is given in most high schools in the state and is generally required. There is a greater percentage of students enrolled in physics and· a lower percentage of students in chemistry than in any other state in the United States. II. ME1'HODS IN TEACHING This study shows that general science is universally given in the ninth grade and sometimes in the eighth grade of the Junior High School. Biology is about equally distributed between the tenth and eleventh grades, and physics is given in the twelfth grade. Slightly over 54% of the high schools give laboratory work in biology although only 34% report double laboratory periods. A textbook course only in biology is given by 25% of the high schools while 18% report demonstration work without laboratory. This is of interest in connection with the studies reported by some recent investigators in which they conclude that the demonstra-tion method of presenting high school sciences is superior to the laboratory method. Iowa teachers are not as yet making general use of the demonstration method. It is deplorable that 25% of the schools teach biology purely from the text book. The teachers almost unanimously think that field work is desir-able in biology, but because of administrative reasons find it diffi-cult to carry out. Some field work is given in 62.5% of the schools. The two text books most generally used are Smallwood, Reveley, and Bailey in 39.5% of the schools and Gruenberg in 22%. The other texts in order of their occurrence are: - Moon, Peabody and Hunt, Hunter, Kinsey, Trafton, and Clements. 3Lantz: The Status of the Biological Sciences in the High Schools of IowaPublished by UNI ScholarWorks, 1930104 IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE III. OBJECTIVES The following six objectives were submitted to the teachers and they were asked to rank them according to their importance. The first figure placed after the objective gives the number of first places accorded to it and the second, the number of sixth places accorded to it. a. To train in observation ( 11), ( 4). b. To train in the scientific method (5), (30). c. To train in citizenship (11), (15). d. To give a knowledge of the environment necessary for effective liv-ing ( 33), (1). e. To give a knowledge of biological facts necessary for the maintenance of the health of the individual and of the community ( 47), (0). f. To broaden the pupil's life by the aesthetic appeal of plants and ani-mals ( 6), (20). · IV. TEACHERS TRAINING. Reports on the teacher's academic training in the biological sci-ences was received from only 67% of those answering the ques-tionnaire. Only 19.8% of these teachers had majored in college in a biological science; 11.3 % had minored in a biological science; 30.2% majored in some science other than a biological science; 18.8% majored in home economics. The median number of college credit hours earned in the biological sciences by these teachers was 16. There were three teachers who reported as having no college credit in the biological sciences and 27% had only ten credit hours or less. The reports seemed to indicate that the teacher was employed more often to teach some other subject primarily and that biology was more or less incidental. v. CONCLUSIONS This study indicates clearly that botany and zoology as distinct subjects are seldom given in the high school~ of Iowa. A course called biology has replaced these two subjects, and judging from the textbooks used, this course attempts to cover plant study, ani-mal study, and the study of the human body. This is in accord with the tendency in the whole L'nited States. General science has be-come almost universal in the schools. Many University and Col-lege specialists in the sciences have opposed the introduction of these more general sciences, but in spite of this, they have become established in our high schools. Evidently in the minds of those 4Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science, Vol. 37 [1930], No. 1, Art. 20https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias/vol37/iss1/20HIGH SCHOOLS OF IOWA 105 most closely in touch with high school students these courses are meeting the demands for science instruction because they are on the increase and the old special lines of science are decreasing. This perhaps is in line with the general tendency all over the country in favor of survey courses and outline books in various fields. Biology teaching in Iowa high schools is handicapped by the lack of preparation of the teachers. The fact that only 20% of those teaching biology majored in any biological science is a de-plorable condition. The emphasis in high school biology is to teach biology in rela-tion to man, so that he may better adjust himself to his environ-ment and become a more efficient member of his community. This I think is a very worthy objective. It is rather surprising that few consider the training in the scientific method important. Those of us who are preparing high school teachers of biology must recognize the general tendency as indicated by this study, because it calls for teachers with a broad scientific training as well as a special training. IowA STATE TEACHERS CoLLE:GE, CitDAR FALLS, low A. 5Lantz: The Status of the Biological Sciences in the High Schools of IowaPublished by UNI ScholarWorks, 1930

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The Status of the Biological Sciences in the High Schools of Iowa

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