Investigating models Test out a particular explanation, which might be your own or someone else’s, and see if it works and makes sense. This may involve constructing a fair test, but it has a different starting point. This kind of enquiry is useful for supporting children’s development of scientific concepts, challenging their ideas by presenting them with alternatives. If children have an idea that electricity gets ‘used up’ around a circuit, this could be challenged directly by helping them to think through the logic of their explanation: Does this mean a series of bulbs in a circuit would get dimmer and dimmer? And then try it out and see.