Bacteria, viruses, and other invisible creatures are, in brief, microorganisms. Especially with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the features of microorganisms, their density, and relevant precautions have grown in importance. Knowing the density of microorganisms at school will cause our cleaning habits to change. In this study, efforts were…

This article aims to implement an engineering design-based STEM activity for young children and evaluate the implementation process of the activity, along with providing some revision ideas. The activity was held as a 90-minute weekend workshop with the participation of six children aged four to seven. Data were collected through digital…

Engineering design practices in STEM education focus on reflecting the discipline-specific work of engineers in a manner that is suitable for the student level and course learning objectives. Using an engineering design context also facilitates student identification of global problems and feasible solutions to address such problems. In this…

In this study, an extracurricular observation module is suggested for the purpose of observing the sustainability of biodiversity based on gathering evidence regarding different seed dispersal processes in the natural environment. These observations were made during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic, a time when human activity inflicted a…

School science is often very different from "real world" science. One important difference, and possibly the main one, is that in school science the relationships between variables have often been sanitized -- essentially "cleaned up" -- so that there is very little (and often no) variation in the data from the relationship…

When educators started incorporating the letter A into the STEM acronym to form STEAM some science educators had reservations. Seen from a western, rationalistic way of knowing (Colucci-Gray et al. 2017, 23) the STEM community had detractors regarding the idea of integrating art into science. Hence, scientific language is often thought of as being…

Kids are drawn to dolls and dump trucks, and crashing the two together might just be a child's favorite pastime. Who knew such a simple pleasure could serve as an accessible, compelling phenomenon for instigating investigations of force and motion. With a few inexpensive materials straight out of the toy box (literally, a doll, a dump truck, a…

This paper explores the use of comics as an integrated tool for introducing socioscientific issues (SSI) in elementary school classrooms. To illustrate this, we provide implementation examples from two teachers who facilitated introducing SSI to students using comics. These case studies depict how teachers integrated comics into their classroom…

Our 4th grade year has become known as "the field trip year", with over 10 trips carefully aligned with learning units across the year. This article describes the first trip of the year, which in many ways sets the stage for students' effective use of field trips as engaging extensions and applications of classroom learning. The Pike's…

Within the scope of the current study, the researchers developed activities for middle school students to raise their awareness on the harm of plastics and microplastics, which are detrimental to nature and living things. In addition, through the activities developed, the study aimed to provide students with knowledge of and experience with…

To foster students' meaningful learning of science, we designed and implemented a unit for five third-grade students that allowed them to understand Carbon Footprint (CF) in a public school in North Texas. The unit lasted seven weeks, where students identified the effects of distance traveled and packaging on the CF of certain consumable products.…

Students have several misconceptions about thermodynamics. However, an understanding of basic concepts in this branch of physics remains fundamental to explain thermal phenomena. The purpose of this activity was to extend students' conceptual understanding of heat, temperature, energy, and thermal insulators and conductors. Two groups of students…

Physically active learning is considered to enhance learning and additionally addresses health goals like increasing activity levels and reducing obesity. However, physically active learning has rarely been applied to science and engineering learning, or utilized with younger learners (e.g under sevens). This article describes a physically active…

This integrated STEM activity on the design of a vertical farming system has biology as the lead discipline and relates to the concept of photosynthesis. Students investigated the optimal design of vertical farms that will deliver appropriate amounts of water, sunlight and carbon dioxide to plants such that there will be optimal yield. Through…

Although severe weather has the potential to significantly impact people and the environment, it also presents unique opportunities to teach students about different weather phenomena and how to prepare. When our community was anticipating the hit of Hurricane Matthew, this was a great opportunity for students to become meteorologists and…