"the Science Ball": Poetry As Historical Evidence (1)‪.‬

In 1906, a witty poem about girls and science appeared in The Niagara Rainbow. The poem was written by Mother Berchmans Doyle, IBVM, for the 19 students in her science class at Loretto Academy in Hamilton. This paper shows how our traditional conception of girls not taking or being interested in science in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is erroneous. While Ontario high school teachers were frightened of teaching the relatively new and mandatory subjects of chemistry (and physics), biology and astronomy, Mother Berchmans cleverly and easily teaches a lesson in chemical nomenclature through poetry. This paper places The Science Ball within a historical, cultural, and economic context in order to demonstrate how science was taught and learned at a Loretto convent school at the turn of the twentieth century. En 1906, un petit poeme amusant au sujet des jeunes filles et la science fut publie dans The Niagara Rainbow. Ecrit par Mere Berchmans Doyle, IBVM, le poeme etait specifiquement pour les 19 etudiantes dans son cours de science a l'Academie Loretto d'Hamilton. Cet article demontre l'erreur de la perception traditionnelle du 19ieme et le debut du 20ieme siecle, qui pensait que les jeunes filles n'etaient pas interessees, ni voulaient prendre, des cours de sciences. Pendant que les enseignant(e)s des ecoles secondaires en Ontario avaient de la misere a enseigner les nouveaux sujets obligatoires comme la chimie, la physique, la biologie et l'astronomie, Mere Berchmans a reussi a enseigner une lecon de terminologie chimique en utilisant la poesie.