This work deals with the importance of experimental practice in the teaching of physical sciences. By practice, we rarely mean practical work carried out in the laboratory. We examined the relationship between students' knowledge of physical science and how practice may or may not help them understand chemical and/or physical concepts. What emerges from a survey distributed to our students is that they are very favorable of the use of the practice. The problem posed in this work consists in identifying the impact of experiments on the acquisition of knowledge and in responding to the problems of learning through experience in the short and medium term. The analysis of the answers allowed us to conclude that the experiment in class, by the teacher, helps to understand the physical and chemical phenomena and can be done before or after the study of the theory. The length and difficulty of practical work sometimes worry students, trying to follow the protocol step by step. This fact underscores the importance of clarity of purpose, through which students can be guided toward questioning what is expected of them, such as knowing how their knowledge has increased.