although moseley was at first successful in securing funding for practical scientific equipment and resources for student experimentation in schools science did not become a basic part of the elementary school tradition instead object lessons becme commonplace in which the teacher exhibited a common object such as piece of coal or its representation such as a picture of a horse and then elicited from pupils its description definition and properties( layton 1973) this was a far cry from the science of common things' and the public educator curriculum.