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2. See L. S. Vygotsky, Thought and Language. Cambridge, Mass.: M I T Press, 1962. 3. See two studies by W i l l i a m L a b o r a n d Eddie G. P o n d e r in 1965 Yearbook of the New York Society for the Experimental Study of Education, p. 110-124. 4. T h e New York State E d u c a t i o n D e p a r t m e n t is b r i n g i n g out, t h r o u g h its Division of I n t e r c u l t u r a l R e l a t i o n s in Education, a booklet for teachers describing t h e contributions of e t h n i c minorities. 5. B r e n d a L a n s d o w n a n d H e r m a n Schneider, "Charles R i c h a r d Drew's Blood Bank," in Now Try This. Boston: D. C. H e a t h , 1964, p. 60.

by Charles Tanzer At a casual glance, M a n h a t t a n Island would a p p e a r to offer few opportunities for environmental science study. T h e towers of concrete, brick, and glass shut out the free play of light and air and almost every available inch of the earth's surface seems to be covered with asphalt and stone. Such dismaying surroundings tend to discourage teachers who wish to plan real experiences and life science field trips for school children, Yet, if they know where to look, teachers will find rich resources available to them, often only minutes from their schools. A survey of M a n h a t t a n ' s parks has revealed excellent facilities for field studies close to schools in some of the most deprived areas of the city. T o m p k i n s Square Park on the Lower East Side is better known as a hippie enclave than as a center for environmental science study. But on a spring day in the park, children can see the white flowers growing on the honey locust trees and note their resemblance to sweet peas in the florist shop. T h i s is not surprising, as both belong to the pea family. A n d so we have an early lesson in classification. Later in the fall the same trees bear long brown pods which drop to the ground, split open, and scatter their seeds as they are blown by the wind. Pin oaks are plentiful, and their acorns supply food for the m a n y gray squirrels that have learned to survive in the heart of the city. W h y study caged hamsters or gerbils when the squirrels offer such excellent lessons in animal behavior a n d adaptation? T h e i r sharp claws enable them to climb the highest trees, and they build leafy nests for shelter during the heat of the summer. T h e maple trees in the park d r o p their spinning fruits to the p a v e m e n t below, illustrating the wind distribution of seeds. H u n dreds of pigeons perch on the branches of the trees and flocks of English sparrows and starlings contend for scraps of food. A short side trip to the open market on Avenue C near the p a r k will provide plenty of material for classroom investigation of seed germination, plant reproduction, and animal life. A great variety of beans, peas, and other seeds will be on display and pupils will wish to study them along with such exotic plant products as mangoes, avocadoes, and Puerto Rican vegetables like yautia and flame. An Italian fish store will supply squid, octopus, sea urchins, snails, mussels, and other interesting creatures. For laboratory study, one may purchase mealworms, daphnia, brine shrimp, infusoria tablets, and aquatic plants in the local pet shop. Further north, a short distance by subway, is Central Park, an enclave of woodland, meadow, and ponds set in the very heart of the city. H e r e Charles T a n z e r is coordinator of t h e sciences, teacher education p r o g r a m , at H u n t e r College in New York City.

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children may observe traces of the glacier that covered New York City thousands of years ago. T h e y may take samples of water from the lakes and ponds and carry them back to the classroom to see paramecium, rotifers, cyclops, microscopic worms and insect larvae. Near the shores of the lake they will find floating masses of duckweed and the green fronds of arrowhead. Lying directly in the p a t h of the Atlantic flyway, the park is a resting place for great numbers of migrating birds. More than 200 different species have been seen here. At the northern tip of M a n h a t t a n Island, only 20 minutes from the heart of H a r l e m by subway, is the largely undeveloped Inwood Hill Park. Parts of the park will give pupils a vivid view of this area of the city m u c h as it was when H e n r y H u d s o n anchored there in 1609. H e r e grow huge maple, oak, and tulip trees hundreds of years old. Outcroppings of I n w o o d m a r b l e and M a n h a t t a n schist reveal the basic rock structure underlying the city. In some places, falling slabs of stone have formed cave-like structures once inhabited by the Indians. Arrowheads, pottery, and basket work have been found m a r the caves. T h e plants growing in the park are representative of the vegetation of the area in colonial times. Sassafras and witch hazel were used as medicine; and the wild blackberry, hickory, beech, and m a n y other plants contributed to the food supply. Rabbits and pheasants may still be seen in the undergrowth. One of the most interesting areas in Inwood Park lies along the river b a n k near the p a r k entrance. A patch of weeds growing at this point illustrates m a n y of the principles of life science. T h e twining vines of bindweed climb the fence railings and twist up the stalks of other plants. Do they always twine in the same direction? Can they be disentangled and made to twine in the opposite direction? These are some of the questions that Charles Darwin attempted to answer when he studied climbing plants. Here too we may see the parasitic dodder plant, which penetrates the tissues of the clover and absorbs its fluids. Bees fly from flower to flower, collecting nectar and transferring pollen grains. Milkweed, dandelion, aster, and thistle bear feathery fruits which provide beautiful examples of the wind distribution of seeds. T h e soapwort, when r u b b e d up with water, produces a foamy lather that was used f o r washing in colonial times when soap was not available. T h e blueflowered chicory plant has a root that can be ground to produce a coffee substitute, and one can taste the wild garlic that was used to flavor foods. T h e burdock bears hooked, spiny fruits that cling to clothing and to the fur of animals for distribution of the seeds. In all, at least 30 kinds of plants can be found in this small area. In their m a n y life styles and in their struggle to survive, there are endless lessons that children can learn. It has been suggested that "each school should build into its curricu l u m the peculiar features of its own environment. T h e nearby river, the 'empty' lot, the park, the brook, ,the swamp, the tree on the street, the vegetable market, the bakery, the flower shop, the large gas tanks, the school bus, all these are resources to be utilized. ''~ T h e teacher recognizes the interest of the child in his e n v i r o n m e n t and provides the requisite opportunities for exploration. YVhat are the benefits of environmental science for the child who lives in the inner city? Malkin stresses the role of elementary school science in enlarging the u r b a n pupil's environment, which he views as quite restricted. 2 H e suggests trips to a farm or zoo as examples of suitable activities. It is clear that horizons can be broadened by using the resources

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that are closer at hand, even in the most heavily p o p u l a t e d u r b a n areas. Several publications of the New York City Board of Education offer excellent suggestions for teachers.a, 4,5 C u r r e n t trends in elementary school science stress the procedures of scientific inquiry, coupled with a psychological approach related to the findings of J e a n Piaget. 6 T h e process approach of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Commission on Science Education identifies observation, classifying, measuring, communicating, inferring, predicting, recognizing space-time relations, and recognizing n u m b e r relations as processes for the primary gradesY O t h e r programs being developed in elementary school science emphasize similar processes. R o b e r t Gagn6 believes that before the methods of scientific inquiry can be applied with any degree of success, the learner must acquire broad knowledge and certain competencies, s A m o n g the competencies are the ability to observe, classify, measure, describe, and infer. These should be developed through the child's own efforts, spurred on by curiosity and by using opportunities to m a k e his own discoveries. E n v i r o n m e n t a l science can contribute to the process approach, and it can do more. It can enable children to discover for themselves the effects of air and water pollution and develop in them a propensity to support efforts to alleviate such pollution. It can demonstrate the ecological relationships of living things to one another, a h h o u g h u r b a n ecology has been sadly neglected by specialists in that field. Correlations with art, social studies and language arts can be naturally achieved. T h e principles of conservation become clear by actual observation. But most of all, the child's e n v i r o n m e n t is enhanced by direct experience, leading h i m to appreciate the diversity and the beauty of living things.

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by Elizabeth H u n t e r

During the 1966-67 school year, 75 first grade .teachers in the public schools of New York City were trained in science teaching in a project sponsored by the Center for U r b a n Education. Each teacher received instruction in one of six new elementary school science programs: Experiences in Science by T a n n e n b a u m and Stillman; Kinney and Schmidt Science-Reading Program; Concepts in Science by Brandwein; S c i e n c e - A Process A p p r o a c h by the American Association for ,the Advancement of Science; Science C u r r i c u l u m h n p r o v e m e n t Study by Karplus; and the New York City Board of Education Curriculum. T h e stress in the training sessions was on the use of materials by the youngsters, and all programs except that of New York City provided materials for teachers to use with youngsters in their classrooms. Teachers being trained to use tile New York City program, the Concepts in Science program, or the Experiences in Science p r o g r a m met for six sessions; teachers who were to use Kinney and Schmidt met 11 times; and those who would use either S c i e n c e - A Process A p p r o a c h or the Science C u r r i c u l u m I m p r o v e m e n t Study had 15 training sessions. All sessions lasted for about one and a half hours and were led by persons recomm e n d e d by the publishers of the materials; in some cases the authors of the materials being presented were the instructors. T h e results of this training were looked at in a variety of ways. T h i s report will present the findings of one project which analyzed the verbal behavior of 22 first grade teachers as they taught science. Eleven teachers had participated in the previous year's training and m a d e u p the experimental group; 11 others received no special training and constituted the control group. In the experimental g r o u p two teachers were selected at randoin to represent each of the six programs, with the exception oti the New York City program, for which only one teacher was available. Tile control group was selected so that its classes matched the experimental g r o u p in ability levels. The Verbal Interaction Category System and its Use

References

1. "Rethinking Science Education," 59th Yearbook o[ the National Society [or the Study of Education, Part I, University of Chicago Press, 1960. 2. Samuel Malkin, "The Culturally Deprived Child and Science," Science and Children, Vol. 1, No. 7, April 1964. 3. "Operation New York," Board of Education of the City of New York, t960. 4. "Operation Ward's Island," Board of Education of the City of New York, 1968. 5. Science Grades K-6, Grade 5 Revision; Unit--"Little Environments," Board oI: Education of the City of New York, 1969. 6. Jean Piaget, "Development and Learning," Journal o[ Research in Science Teaching, Vol. 2, No. 3, 1964. 7. Arthur H. Livermore, "The Process Approach of the AAAS Commission on Science Education," Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Vol. 2, No. 4, 1964. 8. Robert Gagn~, "The Learning Requirements for Inquiry," Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Vol. 1, No. 2, 1963.

T h e category system used to observe the verbal behavior in these classrooms was the Revised vms-Science (Figure 1), a modification of the revised VlCS (Figure 2), which is based u p o n Flanders' system of Interaction Analysis (Figure 3). Each teacher was observed on ,two separate occasions while she taught science, and the verbal behavior was recorded in all classrooms by one observer, who tallied the a p p r o p r i a t e behavioral category every three seconds, except when the behavior changed before the three seconds were up in which case she recorded the a p p r o p r i a t e category n u m b e r immediately. T h e tallies were subsequently entered onto m a t r i c e s - o n e matrix for each lesson. Ultimately, one master matrix was compiled for the experimental g r o u p and one for the control group, giving a composite picture of the classroom verbal behavior for each group according to the categories of the Revised vies-Science. Elizabeth Hunter is associate professor of education at Hunter College. She thanks Professor Jeffery Kirk and Mrs. Ruth Goldstein for their help in the project described in her article.