As an outcome of multidiscipline integration, the polymeric surfactant is of growing importance in modern industry and scientific research. However, the instructional introduction on polymeric surfactants is still insufficient in universities nowadays. In order to effectively guide undergraduates to study polymeric surfactant, a new polymeric…

A class of 18 students attending the last year of an Italian high school was divided into groups and performed the extraction of pigments contained in hibiscus tea. Each group worked at a different temperature and carried out multiple extractions using distilled water as a solvent. By means of UV-vis spectroscopy it was possible to determine the…

This paper explores the integration of STEM activities in teaching and learning, emphasizing the importance of innovative pedagogical approaches in effectively introducing theoretical concepts, such as variables and functions, and merging them with practical applications. Drawing on existing literature, this study investigates the integration of…

Mass spectrometers are ever-increasingly powerful, user-friendly, and affordable. Thus, the addition of mass spectrometry experiments into the undergraduate laboratory curriculum is now both feasible and an effective tool to introduce students to relevant instrumentation. Here an experiment demonstrating the use of a high-resolution electrospray…

This Article aims to share the results of a project that was developed with 80 students from Technical High School of Professional and Technological Education (PTE) at an institute located in the northeast of Brazil. The students discussed the global overview of fuel production and use, and how the introduction of green hydrogen into the market…

A multioutcome, guided inquiry-based liquid--liquid extraction (LLE) experiment has been designed for introductory organic chemistry. Multiple outcomes were established by identifying a series of red and blue dyes that are (1) soluble in organic solvent, (2) soluble in aqueous solution, or (3) soluble in either the organic or aqueous layers by…

This article describes a lesson rooted in "tinkering," an approach to learning that encourages the use of authentic, hands-on experience to develop an understanding of content and physical materials. There were several desired outcomes for this lesson. First, the authors felt that tinkering was an appropriate approach to investigating…

The "Next Generation Science Standards" ("NGSS") have placed an emphasis on the incorporation of engineering practices into K-12 science instruction. This article details a sequence of physical science lessons that would be part of teaching matter in the second-grade classroom. The goals of these lessons are: (1) to be hands-on…

This study combined virtual reality (VR) technology, the 6E (Engage, Explore, Explain, Engineer, Enrich, and Evaluate) model, and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education to develop a hands-on activity aimed at helping students to achieve "learning by doing." The participants were 162 tenth-grade students,…

The aim of this paper is to propose a method for solving head-on elastic collisions, without algebraic complications, to emphasize the use of the fundamental conservations laws. Head-on elastic collisions are treated in many physics textbooks as examples of conservation of momentum and kinetic energy.

Computational thinking is an essential skill in the modern global workforce. The current public health crisis has highlighted the need for students and educators to have a deeper understanding of epidemiology. While existing STEM curricula has addressed these topics in the past, current events present an opportunity for new curricula that can be…

This research aimed to design an instructional module to teach light diffraction by a grating to secondary students applying a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-integrated approach. Based on this approach, instructional management integrated the disciplines of physics and mathematics with engineering design process…

As digital educational media use becomes more widespread, an opportunity exists to develop new methods to present abstract ideas to provide a more meaningful learning experience. Drawing from psychology and dynamic visualization research, new interactive tools can be thoughtfully designed but it is also necessary to establish how these media are…

As effective methods to foster students' understanding of scientific models in science education are needed, increased reflection on thinking about models is regarded as a relevant competence associated with scientific literacy. Our study focuses on the influence of model-based approaches (modeling vs. model viewing) in an out-of-school laboratory…

Computational thinking (CT) is increasingly acknowledged as an essential skill to solve problems interdisciplinary. This paper describes the development and validation of the unplugged activity of CT in science (ACTS) module, which is specifically designed to integrate CT. The present study was conducted in five phases: Phase I was composed of…