A Civic Biology Part 44

Labeled drawing of root hair. Root hair as a _cell_ emphasized. Osmosis demonstrated.

Tenth week. COMPOSITION OF THE SOIL. Demonstration of presence of mineral and organic substances in the soil. What root hairs take from the soil.

Mineral matter necessary and why. Importance and sources of nitrogen. Soil exhaustion and its prevention. Nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Review bacteria of decay. Rotation of crops.

Eleventh week. UPWARD COURSE OF MATERIALS IN THE STEM. Demonstration of pea seedlings with eosin to show above. Demonstration of evaporation of water from a leaf. Action of stomata in control of transpiration. Cellular structure of leaf. Demonstration of elodea to show cell.

Twelfth week. SUN A SOURCE OF ENERGY. Heliotropism. Demonstration.

Necessity of sunlight for starch manufacture. Necessity of air for starch manufacture. By-products in starch making. Oil manufacture in leaf. Protein manufacture in plant. Respiration.

Thirteenth week. REPRODUCTION. Necessity for (_a_) perpetuation, (_b_) regeneration. Study of a typical flower to show sepals, petals, stamens, pistil. Functions of each part. Cross and longitudinal sections of ovary shown and drawn. Emphasis on essential organs. Pollination, self and cross.

(NOTE. At least one field trip must be planned for the month of May. This trip will take up the following topics: The relations between flowers and insects. The food and shelter relation between plants and animals.

Recognition of 5 to 10 common trees. Need of conservation of forests. An extra trip could well be taken to give child a little knowledge and love for spring flowers and awakening nature.)

Fourteenth week. STUDY OF THE BEE OR b.u.t.tERFLY WITH REFERENCE TO ADAPTATIONS FOR INSECT POLLINATION. Study of an irregular flower to show adaptations for insect visitors. Fertilization begun. Growth of pollen tubes.

Fifteenth week. FERTILIZATION COMPLETED. Use of chart to show part played by egg and sperm cell. Ultimate result the formation of embryo and its growth under favorable conditions into young plant. Relation of flower and fruit, pea, or bean used for this purpose. Development of fleshy fruit.

Apple used for this purpose.

Sixteenth week. MATURING OF PARTS AND STORING OF FOOD IN SEED AND FRUIT.

The devices for scattering the seeds and relation to future plants. Resume of processes of nutrition to show how materials found in fruit and seed are obtained by the plant.

Seventeenth week. PLANT BREEDING. Factors: (_a_) selective planting, (_b_) cross-pollination, (_c_) hybridizing. Heredity and variation begun. Darwin and Burbank mentioned.

Eighteenth and nineteenth weeks. THE NATURAL RESOURCES OF MAN: SOIL, WATER, PLANTS, ANIMALS. The relation of plant life to the above factors of the environment. The relation of insects to plants (forage and other crops) and the relation of birds to insects. Need for conservation of the helpful factors in the environment of plants. Attention called to some native birds as insect and wood destroyers.

Twentieth week. REVIEW AND EXAMINATIONS.

SECOND TERM

First week. THE BALANCED AQUARIUM. Study of conditions producing this. The role of green plants, the role of animals. What causes the balance. How the balance may be upset. The nitrogen cycle. What it means in the world outside the aquarium. Symbiosis as opposed to parasitism. Examples.

Second week. STUDY OF THE PARAMOECIUM. Study of a hay infusion to show how environment reacts upon animals. Relation to environment. Study of cell under microscope to show reactions. Structure of cell. Response to stimuli, function of cilia, gullet, nucleus, contractile vacuoles, food vacuoles, as.e.xual reproduction. Drawings to show how locomotion is performed, general structure. Copy chart for fine structure.

Third week. A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. One day. Development of a multicellular organism. (Use models.) One day. Physiological division of labor. Tissues, organs. Functions common to all animals. Ill.u.s.trative material. Optional trip to museum for use of ill.u.s.trative material to ill.u.s.trate the princ.i.p.al characteristics of (_a_) a simple metazoan, sponge, or hydrazoan, (_b_) a segmented worm, (_c_) a crustacean (Decapod), (_d_) an insect, (_e_) a mollusk and echinoderm, (_f_) vertebrates.

(Differences between vertebrates and invertebrates.) The characteristics of the vertebrates. Distinguish between fishes, amphibia, reptiles, birds, mammals. Two days for discussion. Man's place in the animal series, elementary discussion of what evolution means.

Fourth week. THE ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF ANIMALS. Uses of animals: (1) As food. Directly: fish, sh.e.l.lfish, birds, domesticated mammals. (2) Indirectly as food: protozoa, crustacea. (3) They destroy harmful animals and plants. Snakes--birds; birds--insects; birds--weed seeds; herbivorous animals--weeds. (4) Furnish clothing, etc. Pearl b.u.t.tons, etc. (5) Animal industries, silkworm culture, etc. (6) Domesticated animals.

Animals do harm: (1) To gardens. (2) To crops. (3) To stored food; examples, rats, insects, etc. (4) To forest and shade trees. (5) To human life. Disease: parasitism and its results,--examples, from worms, etc.; disease carriers fly, etc. Preventive measures. Methods of extermination.

References to Toothaker's _Commercial Raw Materials_. Use one day for laboratory work from references.

Fifth week. THE STUDY OF A WATER-BREATHING VERTEBRATE. Two days. The fish, adaptations in body, fins, for food getting, for breathing. Structure of gills shown. Laboratory demonstration to show how water gets to the gills.

Drawings. Outline of fish, gills. Required trip to aquarium. Object, to see fish in environment. One day. Home work at market. Why are some fish more expensive than others. Economic importance of fish. Relation of habits of (_a_) food getting, (_b_) sp.a.w.ning to catching and extermination of fish.

Two days. Means of preventing overfishing, stocking, fishing laws, artificial fertilization of eggs, methods. Development of fish egg.

Comparison with that of frog and bird.

Sixth week. THE FACTORS UNDERLYING PLANT AND ANIMAL BREEDING. Study of pupils in cla.s.s to show heredity and variation. Conclusion. Animals tend to vary and to be like their ancestors. Heredity, role of s.e.x cells, chromosomes. Principles of plant breeding. Selective planting, hybridizing, work of Darwin, Mendel, De Vries, and Burbank. Methods and results. Animal breeding, examples given, results. Improvement of man: (1) by control of environment, (_a_) example of clean-up campaign, 1913; (2) by control of individual, personal hygiene, and control of heredity. Eugenics. Examples from Davenport, G.o.ddard, etc.

Seventh week. THE HUMAN MACHINE. Skin, bones and muscles, function of each.

Examples and demonstration with skeleton. Organs of body cavity; show manikin. Work done by cells in body.

Eighth week. STUDY OF FOODS to determine: (_a_) nutritive value. Exercise with food charts to determine foods rich in water, starch, sugar, fats, proteins, mineral salts, refuse. One day. (_b_) Nutritive value of foods as related to work, age, s.e.x, environment, cost, and digestibility. Foods compared to determine what is really a cheap food.

Ninth week. HOW THE FUEL VALUE OF FOOD HAS BEEN DETERMINED. The dietaries of At.w.a.ter, Chittenden, and Voit. The 100-calorie portion table and its use.

Tenth week. THE APPLICATION OF THE 100-CALORIE PORTION TO THE MAKING OF THE DAILY DIETARIES. Luncheon dietaries. A balanced dietary for pupil for one day. Family dietaries. Relation to cost. Reasons for this.

Eleventh week. FOOD ADULTERATIONS. Tests. Drugs and the alcohol question.

Twelfth week. DIGESTION. The alimentary ca.n.a.l of frog and of man compared.

Drawings. (One day.) The work of glands. Work of salivary gland. Enzymes, internal secretions. Experiments to show (_a_) digestion of starch by saliva, (_b_) digestion of proteins by gastric or pancreatic juice, (_c_) emulsification of fats in the presence of an alkaline medium. Functions of other digestive glands. Movements of stomach and intestine discussed and explained.

Thirteenth week. ABSORPTION. How it takes place, where it takes place.

Pa.s.sage of foods into blood, function of liver, glycogen.

Fourteenth week. THE BLOOD AND ITS CIRCULATION. Composition and functions of plasma, red corpuscles, colorless corpuscles, blood plates, antibodies.

The lymph and work of tissues. The blood and its method of distribution.

Heart a force pump. Demonstration. Arteries, capillaries (demonstration), veins. Hygiene of exercise.

Fifteenth week. WHAT RESPIRATION DOES FOR THE BODY. The apparatus used.

Changes of blood within lungs, changes of air within lungs. Demonstration.

Cell respiration. The mechanics of respiration. Demonstration. Ventilation, need for, explain proper ventilation. Demonstration. Hygiene of fresh air and proper breathing. Dusting, sweeping, etc.

Sixteenth week. EXCRETION, ORGANS OF. Skin and kidneys, regulation of body heat. Colds and fevers. Proper care of skin, hygiene. Summary of blood changes in body. Explanation of same.

Seventeenth week. BODY CONTROL AND HABIT FORMATION. Nervous system, nerve control. The neuron theory, brain psychology explained in brief. Habits and habit formation. Hygiene of sense organs.

Eighteenth and nineteenth weeks. CIVIC HYGIENE AND SANITATION. THE IMPROVEMENT OF ONE'S ENVIRONMENT. Civic conditions discussed. Water, milk, food supplies. Relation to disease. How safeguarded. How help improve conditions in city.

Twentieth week. REVIEW AND EXAMINATIONS.

HYGIENE OUTLINE

(This outline may be introduced with Plant Biology, or, better, may come as application of the work in Second-term Biology.)

THE ENVIRONMENT. Changes for betterment under control. How a city boy may improve his environment: by proper clothing, proper food and preparation of food, by care in home life; by sanitary conditions in neighborhood and in home.

REVIEW OF ACTIVITIES OF CELL. Irritability, food taking, a.s.similation, oxidation, excretion, reproduction. Similarity of functions of plant and animal cells. All cells perform these functions. Some cells perform functions especially well, _e.g._ contracting muscle cells. All cells need food and oxygen. Some must have this carried to them. A system of tubes carries blood which carries food and oxygen. Food must be prepared to get into the blood. Digestive system: mouth, teeth, stomach, intestines, glands, and digestive juices. Uses of above in preparing food to pa.s.s into the blood. Absorption of food into the blood. How oxygen gets to the cells.

Nose, throat, windpipe, lungs; blood goes to lungs and carries away oxygen.

Excretion. Cells give up wastes to blood and these wastes taken out of blood by kidneys and other glands and pa.s.sed out of body. Sweat, urine, carbon dioxide.

CERTAIN KINDS OF WORK PERFORMED BY CERTAIN KINDS OF CELLS. Advantage of this. Cells of movement. Muscles, tissues. Bones as levers necessary for some movements. This especially true for legs and arms. Skeleton also necessary for protection of internal organs and support of body. Making of special things in the body, _e.g._ digestive juices given to certain cells called gland cells. Working together or coordination of different organs provided for by nervous system. This is composed of cells which are highly irritable or sensitive. Collections of these nerve cells give us the power of feeling or sensation and of thinking.