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It is argued that research on the acquisition of science concepts has rich implications for the teaching of science and can lead to the development of useful principles for the design of learning environments. An experimental project that attempted to use these research-based principles to construct a learning environment for teaching mechanics to fifth- and sixth-grade students is described. The students were encouraged to take active control of their learning, express and support their ideas, make predictions and hypotheses and test them by conducting experiments. They worked in small groups and presented their work to the classroom for debate. Metaconceptual awareness was promoted by encouraging students to make their ideas overt, to test them and compare them with those of other students and to give scientific explanations. Emphasis was also placed on giving the students the opportunity to use models, representational symbols, and measurements. Results showed significant differences between the experimental and control groups in pre-test-post-test comparisons, confirming our hypothesis that the experimental learning environment would result in cognitive gains for the participating students. Further interview analyses and analyses of the classroom discourse helped to clarify some of the variables contributing to the observed conceptual change. © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd.