STARFISH AND ASTROLABES

In a report to the Carnegic Foundation for the Advancement of Learning, Dr. P. J. Rulon offers fairly conclusive proof that the talking moving picture might be used more extensively in science lectures to advantage. Based on a study of public school students the report reveals that pupils who had received their instruction from films had better results than those who had studied from their text-books. That a comparison was not made between results of college students who had seen lecture table experiments and those who had viewed the same experiments in a moving picture is regrettable; for there is reason to believe that a more wide-spread use of films in certain courses would be advantageous.

Certain professors, of course, would object to this radical change perhaps out of vanity, perhaps because of the innate conservatism which they would be loath to lay aside. They, however, should consider the advantages. They can certainly think of nothing more discouraging than to have an experiment go awry because of faulty apparatus. Rather apologetically they explain that at the next lecture they will try again, or they merely state that "this would not have happened, gentlemen, if . . . ." Such would not occur if the complete experiment were photographed and accompanied by explanations.

Already in the Biology and Geology departments certain lectures have consisted of films which have been received favorably. Extending this idea to certain courses in Physics and Chemistry should be considered. Students, who at present find themselves in seats where only with the greatest straining of eyes can they see the dull gray precipitate fall to the bottom of a tube would be greatly benefitted by the talking film. Even if a study of the relative merits of both systems should prove that neither excels the other, there is little doubt that a perfected experiment projected on a large screen, visible to every one will in the end be less expensive and more convenient than the present imperfect arrangement.