NEW EDUCATION FELLOWSHIP

Evening Star, Issue 23123, 24 November 1938, Page 11

NEW EDUCATION FELLOWSHIP

POPULATION SURVEY PRESENTED A general meeting of the Dunedin group of the Now Education Fellowship was held in the institute rooms, on Tuesday. Mr C. Parr, president of the Otago Educational Institute, presided over an attendance of 30 members. A report was presented by tho secretary (Mr D. E. Murray) on the negotiations for a grant from the N.E.F. trust funds. A report was being prepared for the trustees and Dr Beefy had been interviewed in regard to the possibilities. Prospects appeared favourable for the granting of the application. The results of a population survey of Dunedin, carried out by senior boys of Otago Boys’ High School, were presented by two of these boys (F. Still and J 6. Gourlie). The work was organised by Mr AV. G. M'Clymont, and executed in close co-operation with corporation officials. The speakers, in a comprehensive survey, explained first the differences between the new and the old geography and evidenced the humanising of modern geography. Tho uses of population maps were fully detailed, as for example, in intelligent town planning, the distribution of public buildings, open spaces, physical recreation facilities, public health, and transport arrangements in relation to population density. Other countries in the world had made such maps and found them of great value, but this was the first one of its kind in New Zealand. The various methods of compilation were discussed and a most _ interesting outline given of the way in which the map illustrated various movements in the history of the city. It is hoped to carry out civic surveys_ of further aspects, hut it was emphasised that all these would depend for their_value in interpretation on the distribution of population shown in the present survey. Mr Milne, in moving a hearty vote of thanks, pointed out that such a project, while obviously of great intrinsic value, gave such a living badcground to history and geography that it must inevitably also bo most beneficial as a teaching method. His congratulations on the work were endorsed by several other speakers. Mr J. Ironside (Arthur Street) gave an address on the teaching of Nature study, with special reference to the work carried out in his own school. The speaker showed how the environment of the pupil—his school, his own district, and the sea coast—could provide all the material necessary for a Nature study programme. Indeed, this environment had to be limited for effective work so that complete cycles of growth would be accurately observed and interpreted. Tho various methods of arousing tho pupil’s interest were detailed—the basing of lessons on the specimens brought by pupils, outdoor work, specimen collecting and preserving, oral talks, and such practical exercises as the observation of the development of specimens, under controlled conditions, in the class room. The nature of the work for the various classes was then dealt with, the speaker showing how the scope widened from the “ magic and fairy wand ” of the infants to the broader study of Nature in the upper standards, where cause and effect were more logically shown.

_ A hearty vote of thanks to Mr Ironside was carried on the motion of Mr Garden, who endorsed the emphasis placed by the speaker on the study of environment, in which New Zealand pupils are so fortunate compared to those of other countries.