The Educational screen (c1922-c1956])

148 The Educational Screen RUSSIAN EDUCATIONAL FILMS Geographical, medical, biological and physiological films, edited and produced by Russian experts and educators. Full particulars, lists and dates of releases from: Educational Film Department AMKINO CORPORATION 723 Seventh Avenue New York City, N. Y. find that the course of study in Philadelphia describes the study of quarrying in an elementary grade. It became evident that the teachers in the schools had never seen enough of quarries and had too little knowledge of the subject to make it really understandable to young children. So we built a miniature quarry and arranged that in every lesson, an actual blast of real powder shall be set off and a piece of rock in the quarry shall be blasted out. In the same lesson, the pupils use small drills to bore small holes in soft rock but the drills are of exactly the same type as those used in a quarry. We believe that by these methods we are teaching industrial processes and giving a true understanding of commercial materials which the pupils will get in no other way. The Director of Visual Instruction in Pennsylvania, Dr. C. F. Hoban, has asked us to try to make these same lessons of service to the schools of the State and we are, therefore, supplying to teachers in Pennsylvania such samples of unginned cotton, rubber milk and other substances as we use in the lesson described. At the request of Dr. Edwin W. Adams, of the Philadelphia Normal School, we have prepared a special series of lessons on the subject of the content and organization of a school museum and another brief series of lessons on the making of projects. In cooperation with Dr. E. E. Wildman, Director, Science Education, Philadelphia Board of Education, we have given special work in science for the help of Junior High Schools. This science work has touched on commercial products and industries, aiming to bring out the connection between botany, chemistry and other sciences on the one hand, and the actual nature and use of commercial materials on the other hand. The Museum has been requested so frequently to sell the cabinet of specimens that we have felt ourselves forced into the business of offering some such material for school use outside of the State of Pennsylvania. In the State we are able to do a certain amount of work without cost to the schools. Outside of the State this is impossible. The preceding is a brief summary of the educational work of this institution. Those interested in special details are always invited to visit the Museum or to write to us for more definite information. New Screen for Schools To meet a problem which is rather common to the schools of recent construction which have a combination stage and auditorium, Louis A. Astell, in charge of Visual Aids at the Community High School, West Chicago, Illinois, has designed a semi-collapsible screen which stands firmly upon its own feet. The screen surface was made from a discarded piece of canvas, treated with a suitable white filler material and stretched over a light wooden frame. This frame is made of two sections which meet on a horizontal line somewhat above the center of the screen. When it is necessary to transport the screen through doors, the upper portion is swung down on hinges. This screen, when placed in front of the auditorium curtains, makes it possible to show pictures at any time of the day in schools where the basketball floor, stage and auditorium are unified, whereas formerly the use of the regular moving picture curtain in the daytime was impossible unless the community went to the expense of placing dark curtains on all the gym windows. Recent Writings "The Need of Teacher Training in Visual Education" — by Lawrence R. Winchell appears in the January issue of the New Jersey Journal of Education. Mr. Winchell states that capable teachers need training in the new field of visual education, not only in the handling of machines but in the technique of teaching with visual aids. "Our normal schools and colleges have recognized the fact that teachers should be trained in the proper use of subject matter, and text books, but practically nothing is being done in training teachers in the proper use of such tools as objective materials and projection apparatus. We have found visual materials and apparatus used in a haphazard fashion and with little knowledge of any definite technique governing their employment. This must not continue." "Special use of the Stereopticon at Brooklyn Technical High School," by Wesley E. McArdell, in the November issue of Bulletin of High Points, tells how certain problems in instruction i;i the machine shop have been satisfactorily solved by special applications of the stereopticon. This school has also evolved a unique method of projecting electric meters and pyrometers so that an entire class can witness phenomena. The author declares a requisite for work of this sort is a lantern with an optical bench and a powerful illuminant.