ABSTRACT
‘No practical work today, I’m afraid. It’s just a theory lesson.’ It is not uncommon to hear such a remark made by science teachers. Not uncommon, but perhaps a little sad because it reflects an impoverished view of both science and science teaching. It is after all theory that makes science what it is, what makes it powerful and what makes it interesting to learn. Indeed, so charged is the word ‘theory’ with negative associations that we avoided it in the title of this section, instead using the term ‘imagined worlds’ – but more of that later.
