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800 SCHOOL SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS
Teachers College, shows that in the 67 largest cities of the countrythe percentage of secondary school pupils taking physics rangedfrom one-half of one per cent in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to 17per cent in Portland, Oregon. The average was approximately8 per cent. Ten years ago the average for these same cities was14 per cent. It is possible that one of the factors contributingto sucli a condition is the type of physics courses now offered.With a reorganization along the lines suggested here where closercontact is made between, the subject matter taught and the lifeexperiences of pupils it would seem that many more boys andgirls would be attracted to this subject.l^jThe writer wishes again to make the point explicit that theconclusions drawn here are based solely upon the study whichhe is reporting. Other investigations will have to be made beforefinal answers can be given to some of the questions raised.Meantime we will have to ask ourselves whether we will continueto hew to the old line or whether we will rearrange our sciencesequence and be content to harmonize with the results of modernresearch. ’
A NOTE TO TRIGONOMETRY TEACHERS.BY MABEL SYKES,
Bowen High School, Chicago, III.In the October number of School Science Norman Anning describes a
"Device for Teachers of Trigonometry." He opens this description "withthe remark that, "it is a common experience to find pupils "who havedifficulty in going over from the functions of an acute angle to the func-tions of a general angle."The writer has done away with this difficulty by a change in the defini-
tions themselves. When trigonometry was taught by the usual methodthis trouble was always encountered. One year one member of the classremarked, "Why did you not teach us a definition that did not have tobe unlearned?" , Since then the definitions based on the CartesianCoordinates have been given at the outset; for example
ordinate abscissasin x s= ����� cos x
distance distanceand so on. Here are definitions that will apply to an angle in anyquadrant. Moreover if the facts that the ordinate must be read fromthe x axis and the abscissa and distance from the origin are includedin these definitions and if the usual convention regarding signsof directed lines is given at the same time, a large amount of theoreticaltrigonometry is possible at the very beginning of the course.These definitions are given in some text books. While many of these
books may be considered too hard for high school pupils, the method heresuggested is not too hard for them. No trouble arises when in a fewweeks the solution of right triangles is introduced; the circular figure inwhich the lengths of certain lines represent the values of the variousfunctions under certain circumstances, is no longer necessary; the pupilhas at his command a set of definitions that do not have to be "un-learned."
