ABSTRACT
Discovery was highly praised for its adherence to then current educational ideals, but the producer found that the teachers who remained faithful to the series were those already dedicated to the teaching of primary science as a practical, investigative subject. A philosophy which encouraged children to 'make their own discoveries' pervaded the 1960s curriculum development projects in science. The accessibility of natural objects may have contributed to a later absence of endeavour in building up more varied resources for science. Harry Armstrong programmes depended on his personality and were radio's first attempt to introduce the physical sciences to primary children. The proto-science of children is akin to 'scientists' science'. Children interacting actively with reality were bound to develop some enquiry skills but in those days we were unaware of the coming shift in emphasis towards children behaving scientifically and much was left to intuition and chance.
