Excerpt from Junior Grade Science: An Introductory Course of Physics and Chemistry for Irish Intermediate Schools In the compilation of this book the object has been to provide in convenient form a course in Physics and Chemistry suitable for use in connection with the new syllabus prescribed for Junior Grade students by the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland. It is interesting to note, in connection with the new Irish syllabuses in science, that they anticipate by about a year the conclusions of Sir J. J. Thomson's Committee appointed to enquire into the Position of Natural Science in the Educational System of Great Britain. The report states that "A general course in science should fulfil two functions; (a) it should train the mind of the student to reason about things he has observed for himself and develop his powers of weighing and interpreting evidence; (b) it should also make him acquainted with the broad outlines of great scientific principles, with the way in which these principles are exemplified in familiar phenomena and with their applications to the service of man." Further, the report points out that the time allotted to the study of science, even if on the most liberal scale, does not permit the various branches of science to receive the detailed treatment possible where only one or two branches are attempted. "There must necessarily be great gaps in the student's knowledge of these branches, but in the general course we think these should be distributed, rather than that one or more of these branches should escape consideration altogether." The new syllabuses of the Department aim at carrying out this object, and in so doing they introduce certain changes in the matter and methods of science teaching in Irish Intermediate Schools. In the Junior Grade (the needs of which this book are intended to meet) students are now required to possess the knowledge hitherto comprised in the two introductory courses. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.