Higher engineering education programmes increasingly include courses characterised by real-world problems and student collaboration in multidisciplinary teams. Research findings demonstrate that students remain limited in perceiving and meaningfully bridging disciplinary differences in these course contexts. Drawing on the literature on boundaries…

The problem here dealt with concerns physics education, and specifically the concept of force. The idea behind this research is that a historical approach to the teaching of such a notion is of great help for the students to fully understand the meaning of this basic physical magnitude. For, most of scientific concepts can be better grasped by the…

The galvanic cell is a typical interdisciplinary topic, which is primarily taught in chemistry but its underpinning is closely related to physics. Student learning in galvanic cell has been extensively studied in chemistry education, which has revealed a large number of misconceptions that are difficult to change through traditional instruction. A…

Creativity is a policy and practice objective for schools internationally. However, in recent OECD findings, students do not report a positive experience of creativity in their school learning, especially assessments. Similarly, research reports that teachers continue to struggle with making creativity part of the classroom experience. This…

In an effort to examine students' understanding about the structure of boundary conditions in upper-division courses, think-aloud interviews were conducted in the context of both quantum mechanics and electricity and magnetism. In the quantum mechanics task, students were presented with a standard potential step scenario. In the electricity and…

Background: In responding to the global problems facing humankind, there is great value in equipping science and engineering students with skills to function well in multidisciplinary teams. Little attention has been paid into the factors that influence multidisciplinary collaboration and teamwork of science and engineering students. Purpose: This…

Many students who enroll in a first course in linear algebra major in STEM disciplines other than mathematics. Teachers who serve such students may find it difficult to provide authentic problems from these broader areas that ignite students' interest in linear algebra. In this paper, we highlight an interdisciplinary learning activity that…

This study explored teachers' conceptualizations of integrated computational modeling in secondary physics by exposing twelve experienced physics teachers to programming and then analyzing interview responses. Responses revealed that teachers fell along a spectrum of disciplinary boundary-stretching mentalities. This paper presents a preliminary…

Issues like why students felt far from physics and did not choose physics as their prime learning option are familiar in education. This paper aims to study the effectiveness of the STEM-Project-Based learning module in physics on students' personal interest and sensemaking and effort. This research used the quasi-experimental model, employing a…

Integrating computational thinking (CT) into STEM disciplines requires secondary teachers to develop their pedagogical content knowledge of computing and content integration. Experienced teachers who choose to integrate CT in their secondary STEM courses may struggle in the same ways as novice teachers as they learn about programming and its…

The professional high school by the federal schools in Brazil requires an integrated curriculum itinerary. There is a lack of information about how to achieve that in a practical conception of integration. This article aimed to investigate the interdisciplinary approach of the content "transformation of energy" involving the relationship…

A widespread call has been made to develop and support more integrated approaches to STEM education. The first law of thermodynamics serves as a guiding principle for the crosscutting concept of energy and matter. A qualitative interview study was undertaken to support integrated approaches to STEM education by exploring how chemistry, physics,…

The Search for Exoplanets is an interactive computer simulation, the product of a collaboration between the Departments of Physics and Astronomy and Computer Science at Purdue University. Our goal was to create a computer simulation that would introduce students to scientific principles, research methodology, and analysis of data with which…

Learning to create, use, and evaluate models is a central element of becoming a scientist. In physics, we often begin an analysis of a complicated system with highly simplified or toy models. In introductory physics classes, we tend to use them without comment or motivation. Some students infer that physics is irrelevant to their understanding of…

Environmental Physiology at Boise State University, Idaho, is a multidisciplinary course that expands students' understanding of human regulatory physiology through acute and chronic responses to environmental extremes. Students explore the physics (pressure, fluid dynamics, gas laws, sound, and light) of the underwater environment, marine flora…