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Mobilizing scientific knowledge for understanding the natural world and for critically appraise socio-scientific situations and make decisions are key competencies for todays' society. Therefore, it is essential to understand how students at the end of compulsory schooling use scientific knowledge for understanding the surrounding world. The objective of this study is to understand how students construct a scientifically oriented explanation while making sense of a phenomenon related to health. We analysed 526 answers to a question of a Portuguese national 9th grade science exam. The results reveal that most students present difficulties in explaining a phenomenon related to health supported by logical and clear reasoning, and in mobilizing scientific knowledge for connecting different scientific domains. We reaffirm the need to reconceptualize the role of health education within science education. Developing reading, writing and discussion activities related to health, which requires the use of scientific knowledge from different domains, would facilitate students' understanding and appropriation of scientific knowledge and its transference. This is a fundamental competence for promoting active and informed citizenship.

International audience; Abstract The purposes of the study were to analyse the promotion of scientific literacy through practical research activities, and to identify children's conceptions about scientists and how they do science. Elementary school children were engaged in two scientific experiments in a marine biology research laboratory. A total of 136 students answered a questionnaire about their previous habits towards science and carried out the following actions: i) a guided visit to the laboratory; ii) a brief presentation of the research theme; iii) the development of two experiments; iv) a questionnaire about the experiments and science conceptions. The research methods included observation, document analysis and content analysis of the answers to the questionnaires. Additionally, each visit was video recorded in order to design learning materials. The results revealed that most of the pupils were able to follow every stage of experimentation. However, some of them misinterpreted results and conclusions. One implication of the study is that this type of outdoor activities is extremely important to promote meaningful science learning in children, but more care should be taken in practical science activity so that children can overcome some common difficulties about scientific inquiry.