Commissioned for use during the design phase of the "Skills Essential to Learning" (SEL) video project, this concept paper makes a number of suggestions for facilitating effective scientific learning. These include: (1) establishing a positive climate for science learning in which the student can ask and pursue questions, change routes, sources and hypotheses, and has the power to say "I don't know"; (2) allowing students to work cooperatively, to build on the efforts of others, to give credit where it is due, and to organize into groups when necessary; (3) fostering of hypothesizing, predicting, observing, locating information, and isolating the problem, to increase general thinking skills while learning the scientific process; and (4) focusing school science on the everyday experiences of students. It is argued that the most essential insight that students should glean from the science programs is that all life, on both a macro and micro level, is interdependent with other life forms, and dependent on the non-living environment, and that these relationships are worldwide. The real challenge is to create a climate in which children's imagination is sensitized to conceive of what the senses do not convey. Essential ingredients for such an environment are mutual respect and patience. (JB)