Science Departments Give Plans for Reading Period

special books on the subjects may be consulted.

Students of the Bronze and Iron Ages in Europe will use the collections in the Fogg Art Museum and in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in addition to the material covering these periods available in the Peabody Museum.

In the preparation of the written reports it is expected that the students will become more accustomed to the use of original material in the museum in connection with the routine work of the various courses.

This is the first year that the division of Biology has been a field of concentration with tutorial examinations. As the idea of a Reading Period was not formally dealt with by the division until the middle of October, professors in this division had not previously arranged their lectures with the Reading Period in mind. Until Tuesday December 12, when the divisional meeting takes place, there will be no definite divisional program issued as regards the Reading Period in each of the three departments of the Division of Biology.

Although the department of Physiology has no definite plans as yet, the departments of Zoology and Botany, through Professor H. W. Rand '97 Assistant Professor R. W. Wetmore, have issued some definite facts concerning plans that will undoubtedly be adopted.

In both these departments the laboratory work during the Reading Period will under no circumstances be suspended or even curtailed in any way, because these departments feel that it would be a definite disadvantage to the students to diminish the amount of laboratory work in any of the prescribed courses.

Professor Rand, chairman of the Department of Zoology, sounded the keynote for the continuance of laboratory work in all the departments when he made the following statement as regards the department of Zoology: "In our more advanced courses the laboratory work is not minutely prescribed nor meticulously supervised. The students work to a large extent independently and much opportunity is offered for the exercise of their initiative and originality. Laboratory work under such conditions is entirely consistent with the purpose contemplated by the Reading Period."

Seminar and research courses are automatically exempted, because their laboratory work is in any case at the pleasure of the instructors.

The courses that will adopt the reading period in this department are: Zoology 4, 5, 6a, 6b, 7a, 7c, and 17, Laboratory work in Zoology 5 will continue, but its constant supervision will be replaced by occasional conferences. Zoology 3 is not considered far enough advanced to use most profitably the Reading Period, nor are the elementary courses Biology A and Zoology 1 and 3.

In the department of Botany it has been definitely decided that the Reading Period will be covered as part of the course in the midyear examinations. This will probably be adopted by the other departments as well, instead of an alternate choice of a required paper on specially assigned topics by tutors.

Botany 2, 6, 11, and 15 will adopt the Reading Period. All other eligible Botany courses with the exception of Botany 7 will probably adopt the Reading Period in another year. These are not adopting it now because of the incompatibility of the Reading Period and the lectures arranged before the Reading Period was formally decided upon.

Laboratory work, which constitutes in Chemistry, more than in other sciences, the active work of the students engaged upon its study, will continue throughout the Reading Period, according to G. P. Baxter '96, Theodore William Richards Professor of Chemistry and chairman of the department. Four courses, all of an advanced nature, will employ it at mid-years. They are Chemistry 11, Industrial Chemistry, the single course of the four which is not primarily for graduates alone: Chemistry 6. Physical Chemistry: Chemistry 10, Gas Analysis: and Chemistry 16. Advanced Inorganic Chemistry.

Professor Baxter would make no prediction about the future of the Reading Period in his department. As there are no precedents to follow, the use of the Reading Period in Chemistry will probably depend to a large extent upon the result of its first application.

Utilization of the Reading Period in the Department of Physics will be much in the nature of an experiment, upon whose success or failure will depend its future application in this field, according to F. A. Saunders, Professor of Physics and chairman of the department. For this trial two half courses, Physics I and Physics 14 have been selected; the first course covers modern developments in Physics and includes only occasional laboratory work, the other treats Acoustics, with its application to Music and to Architecture and devotes considerable time to laboratory work. Decision has not yet been made as to the suspension of laboratory work during the period, and announcement regarding this will be made later in the courses.

Professor Saunders stressed the fact that courses in Physics are so constituted that they do not lend themselves to the application of the Reading Period without considerable change in their conduct. As in other sciences, the laboratory work is closely connected and integrated with the formal lectures; accordingly it may be that the Reading Period may not be extended to courses during the second half-year or future years if the trial reveals that its application is not advantageous.