Alexander Yakovlevich Gerd - progressive teacher of the sixties, biologist by profession, translator of Darwin and Haeckel, materialist in his views, convinced Darwinist. He was the founder of a new methodology of natural science in Russia and one of the most outstanding founders of the evolutionary biological direction in teaching. He correctly raised the question of the importance of the natural sciences in the school system and, in accordance with this, determined the content and built the methods of teaching natural science. No teacher of the methodology of natural science can currently do without references to A. Ya. Gerd and not remember his historical merits to the national school.