The nature study movement (alternatively, Nature Study or nature-study) was a popular education movement in America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Nature study attempted to reconcile scientific investigation with spiritual, personal experiences gained from interaction with the natural world. Led by progressive educators and naturalists such as Anna Botsford Comstock, Liberty Hyde Bailey, Louis Agassiz and Wilbur S. Jackman, nature study changed the way science was taught in schools by emphasizing learning from tangible objects, something that was embodied by the movement's mantra "study nature, not books."
The movement popularized scientific study outside of the classroom as well, and has proven highly influential for figures involved in the modern environmental movement, such as Aldo Leopold and Rachel Carson.
Read more about Nature Study: Background, Definitions, "Study Nature, Not Books", Education For Children, Women in The Nature Study Movement, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words nature and/or study:
“We call contrary to nature what happens contrary to custom; nothing is anything but according to nature, whatever it may be, Let this universal and natural reason drive out of us the error and astonishment that novelty brings us.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“A man who would woo a fair maid,
Should ‘prentice himself to the trade;
And study all day,
In methodical way,
How to flatter, cajole, and persuade”
—Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911)