CONCRETE PHYSIOGRAPHY 691

HOW I MAKE LABORATORY WORK IN PHYSIOGRAPHYCONCRETE.1

BY LEWIS WALKER,High School, Mahomet, III.

A globe and a few wall maps make up the entire laboratoryequipment provided by the school. The course was taught duringfour months’ time to a class composed of Juniors and Seniors.The problem of teaching Physiography, making it interesting andconcrete, with no apparatus, was one which afforded a great dealof difficulty.

Outline maps were used extensively throughout the work. Eachpupil was required to buy a set, which was selected by the teach-er. Pupils reproduced on outline maps of North America andEurope, the maps in the book, showing the glacier. Arrows weredrawn in the directions in which the glacier extended, fixing in a

helpful way its extent and direction. In this way the glacial cen-ters were made plain and pupils saw more readily the extensiveeffects of glaciation.Ocean Currents and Atmospheric Circulation were studied in

very close relationship one to the other and in detail. The pam-phlet, ^Circulation of the Atmosphere," prepared by D. C. Ridg-ley, was in the hands of the teacher and was used as a supplementto the text.A few facts concerning the air were first mastered, viz., wind is

air in motion, air has weight, air when warmed expands, whencool contracts, warm air is lighter than cold air, warm air canhold more water vapor than cold air, moist air is lighter than dryair.

After these facts and examples proving them were thorough-ly studied the pupils were ready for a complete study of the circu-lation of the atmosphere and its relation to man.

Charts were made showing by means of flying arrows the direc-tion in which the air was moving. An imaginary steam pipe ,was

located in the center of the room representing the equator anddoldrum wind belt. The air (trade winds) moving in from eitherside of the room toward the steam pipe (doldrum belt) waswarmed, expanded, moved upward toward the ceiling where itdivided, some of it passing to either side of the room along theceiling. This air represented the anti-trade winds. When this

^-Read at the High School Conference, at the University of Illinois, November 20,1914.

692 SCHOOL SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS

air pressed against the walls it moved downward towards the out-er aisles on each side of the room, representing the horse latitudewind belts. Here we supposed the air to separate, some of it

passing out of the building to represent the Westerlies, and someof it passing back towards the steam pipe as trade winds.We applied this illustration to the earth without consid-

ering rotation. We then applied the illustration to a rotatingearth. The pupils applied these "facts and mastered the Circula-tion of the Atmosphere in a very short time.The fact that pupils who are now in school can reproduce the

illustration after one year and apply it to the globe is ample proofthat this means of presentation is concrete.Wind belts maps were drawn showing their average position

and their January and July position.The four questions which determine the rainfall of the earth

followed the study of the atmosphere and were applied to thevegetation of the earth and the population. The circulation ofwater was presented and compared to the circulation of the at-mosphere. This was not difficult since the Atmospheric Circula-tion was studied in such detail. A map showing ocean currentswas produced.A tellurian was improvised by means of a board and pieces of

chalk. The chalk was placed in the positions of the earth at thebeginning of the different seasons. The earth’s orbit was repre-sented by a chalk mark. The globe at hand was so constructedthat it illustrated, fairly well, the different positions of the earth.It thus became easy for the pupils to’ understand why the earth canbe nearer the sun on September 21 and March 21 than on June21 and December 21 and yet not have hot weather nor coldweather.

Perihelion and Aphelion were each brought out and illustrated,as well as could be, at this point. Jackson^s Astronomical Geog-raphy was used ^as a supplement to the text in teaching this sub-ject, which so often proves a failure with a class composed ofhigh school children. Nickol’s Tellurian is a cheap but effectiveinstrument for the teaching of seasons*

Maps showing land elevation in color were studied. A goodatlas in the hands of the teacher was passed around to the classthat they might be able to interpret land elevation by contour linesas well as by coloring. A contour map of the local community,if such has been published should be used whenever possible. Sofar as I know, our immediate region has not yet been shown on a

CONCRETE PHYSIOGRAPHY 693

topographic map. Illustrations drawn by the teacher were placedupon the blackboard for the pupils to interpret.

Salt and flour maps were made to show the physical featuresof different continents. These maps did not prove so helpful tothe pupils as the ones in the book. The pupils looked upon theidea of preparing them as laborious and when the time came todiscuss the maps, the individual interest was not so keen as whenthe maps with contour lines were discussed.

A sun stick owned by the teacher was used to determine thealtitude and direction of the sun in degrees and the length, ininches, of the sun^s shadow. The sun stick is made of a pineboard 8^x6^ with a S^x^ peg placed in an upright position ina corner at the end of the board. A nail is driven into the boardat the diagonal corner from the three inch upright. To this nailis attached a string which has a small weight at the loose end. Aquadrant is drawn, using the nail as the center, and is markedoff in degrees.By placing the board in a flat position so that the three inch

piece makes a shadow hourly observations were taken. Thisshowed strikingly the change in the direction of the sun and itsaltitude hour by hour. Thus the earth’s rotation was made con-crete.To make measurements of the altitude and direction of the

sun the quadrant was used. By placing the board on edge so thatthe shadow of the nail fell across the quadrant, the altitude wasdetermined with a fair degree of accuracy.To find the direction of the sun we placed the board square with

the world and noted the number of degrees through which theshadow of the nail passed. This gave the pupils a clearer idea ofdirections.We next studied the weather. We wrote to the Weather Bu-

reau at Peoria asking for a daily weather map but’were refusedthe request. However, they were kind enough to send us a num-ber of clippings from the Peoria papers containing weather maps,which are published daily. With these we studied, so far as timepermitted, the isotherms, and followed highs and lows on succes-sive maps. Pupils noted the barometric pressure in the dailypapers and compared the pressure of one day with another andthe weather of one day with the weather of another.

This work was very enjoyable and was taken up with muchinterest, pupils discussing the weather and making comparisons.

694 SCHOOL SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS

We did not learn until later that a daily weather map could beprocured from Springfield.With no instruments at hand except a, thermometer, no special

weather study could be made by instrumental observations. How-ever, much is possible without instruments.

After looking over the sheet which was purchased as a partof the set of Outline Maps we thought it would prove interestingand profitable to add a few more requisites to the sheet, as it wasevidently designed for work in the first eight grades.On this sheet the date, hour, temperature in degrees, direction

of wind, velocity of wind, condition of roads and sky, precipita-tion, kind and amount of clouds, if any, were given.

This data was tabulated daily from November 10 until De-cember 10, leaving out Saturdays and Sundays and holidays. Thetime of taking the observations was usually, though not necessari-ly, about the same each day. . -

This work was done independent of class although often a dis-cussion of the day’s observation was had in class to aid as a guideand a stimulus.

Salisbury’s Physiography was used as a supplement to the textin determining the kinds of clouds. Excellent pictures of cloudsare to be found in this book, and the pupils found little troublein determining the kind of clouds in the sky after studying care-

fully the pictures and what Professor Salisbury says on the sub-ject.The teacher kept an observation sheet also with which the rec-

ords of the pupils were compared.After the work was completed a curve was drawn to show the

rise and fall of temperature for the month beginning November10, ?nd ending December 10. A dash was used to represent a daylost. The curve was drawn on co-ordinate paper.These are the few methods we used in our school to make the

laboratory work concrete.Each method spoken of in this paper tended to make the Physi-

ography work more realistic in the minds o’f the pupils besidesdoing away with memorizing word’s of the text which had no-

meaning to many.The materials are inexpensive, they served their purpose for us

and served it well. No doubt they will for you�try them.