Economic botany as an advanced science course in secondary schools

Abstract

During the past decade, many secondary schools have been revising their science curriculum. Some schools are stressing the physical sciences in keeping, they believe, with our country's recent entry into the "space age." Other schools are merely altering their program to offer more challenging subject matter to their above-average and gifted students. Besides such conventional science courses as general science, biology, physics, and chemistry, new subjects have been suggested that could be added to the curriculum: geology, astronomy, meteorology, and hygiene. Many schools offer two years of chemistry and two years of physics in the senior high school and even a second year of biology. I do not wish to delve into the pros or cons of any of these subjects or programs. I wish, however, to give my reasons for supporting economic botany as a secondary school subject and tell something about what we did in this regard at the school where I have recently taught. For the past three years, until June, 1961, I taught science in the junior high grades at Renbrook School in West Hartford, Connecticut. My major interest in science is economic botany, and I have felt for many years that there is a place for this subject in the secondary school science program. Ideally, I believe it would be most advantageous for the student to take economic botany as a second year of biology in the eleventh or twelfth grade. However, the subject matter can be adjusted for junior high school grades,