Some learners' ideas about laws of nature,
"[law of nature is] what happens like, it's just a regulation, and is definitely what happens"
'Anita', 13-14 year old reported in Taber, K. S., Billingsley, B., Riga, F., & Newdick, H. (2015). English secondary students' thinking about the status of scientific theories: consistent, comprehensive, coherent and extensively evidenced explanations of aspects of the natural world – or just 'an idea someone has'. The Curriculum Journal, 1-34. doi: 10.1080/09585176.2015.1043926
"people that have researched it, so, they know what is true – they can make it law"
'Ben', 13-14 year old reported in Taber, K. S., Billingsley, B., Riga, F., & Newdick, H. (2015). English secondary students' thinking about the status of scientific theories: consistent, comprehensive, coherent and extensively evidenced explanations of aspects of the natural world – or just 'an idea someone has'. The Curriculum Journal, 1-34. doi: 10.1080/09585176.2015.1043926
"[the law of gravity is] proven fact, gravity does exist, because they proved it"
'Chas', 13-14 year old reported in Taber, K. S., Billingsley, B., Riga, F., & Newdick, H. (2015). English secondary students' thinking about the status of scientific theories: consistent, comprehensive, coherent and extensively evidenced explanations of aspects of the natural world – or just 'an idea someone has'. The Curriculum Journal, 1-34. doi: 10.1080/09585176.2015.1043926
[Of course the law of gravity is much more specific than just stating gravity exists.]
"the scientific version of a law is something that is most certainly true, can be proven, and has been noted as true"
'Colin', 13-14 year old reported in Taber, K. S., Billingsley, B., Riga, F., & Newdick, H. (2015). English secondary students' thinking about the status of scientific theories: consistent, comprehensive, coherent and extensively evidenced explanations of aspects of the natural world – or just 'an idea someone has'. The Curriculum Journal, 1-34. doi: 10.1080/09585176.2015.1043926
"[laws are] something that's been proven, that just happens, and can't be disobeyed, in a way, like a rule…I think someone's found it out that that happens, and then they've gone on to find a lot of evidence for it"
'Dominic', 13-14 year old reported in Taber, K. S., Billingsley, B., Riga, F., & Newdick, H. (2015). English secondary students' thinking about the status of scientific theories: consistent, comprehensive, coherent and extensively evidenced explanations of aspects of the natural world – or just 'an idea someone has'. The Curriculum Journal, 1-34. doi: 10.1080/09585176.2015.1043926
"the laws of physics… what has to happen… they become laws of physics, after it's been proved"
'Dominic', 13-14 year old reported in Taber, K. S., Billingsley, B., Riga, F., & Newdick, H. (2015). English secondary students' thinking about the status of scientific theories: consistent, comprehensive, coherent and extensively evidenced explanations of aspects of the natural world – or just 'an idea someone has'. The Curriculum Journal, 1-34. doi: 10.1080/09585176.2015.1043926
