ABSTRACT
Although first-hand experience is an important part of the science-learning process, there is a limit to what children can discover for themselves. For example, children could discover through enquiry methods that plants need water and light to survive. This is important foundational knowledge towards understanding how plants grow. However, explaining why plants cannot survive without light and water requires children to understand the process of photosynthesis, which is an established scientific idea. Science has a powerful set of established ideas which provide reliable information about how the natural world works. To develop their understanding of the natural world, children must learn to use scientific ideas as tools for explaining its behaviour.
