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What do 9 to 16 year-olds think a theory is? And if they don’t know, can they begin to understand science? These and other fundamental questions ore discussed in minutely researched detail by Rosalind Driver, John Leach, Robin Millar and Phil Scott in Young People’s Images of Science (Open University Press, £12.99, ISBN 0 335 19381 1). It’s an academic text, heavy with annotations; essential for curriculum planners. It seems we should be teaching concepts before cramming facts.