Recently, smart sensing/actuation paper has attracted significant interest due to its potential usage as a sustainable component in future electronics, robotics, and intelligent sensing devices. In acknowledging the importance of this topic for the engagement of students at the university level in conjunction with Industrial Revolution 4.0, it is…

Water and an immiscible organic liquid are placed in a small plastic bottle. Ten small pieces of a notecard which is shaded on one side by crayon or pencil (graphite or colored) are cut out and placed inside the bottle. After capping and shaking, the notecard pieces float at the liquid-liquid interface with the shaded side facing the nonpolar…

Groundwater contamination is a serious environmental problem, given that all living things depend on this essential resource. Groundwater represents less than 1% of all water found on Earth, but nearly 90% of the freshwater used comes from groundwater (USGS 2016). The problem-based activity described in this article actively engages students in…

Water is a meaningful context for children to engage in inquiry, and to acquire and use science and engineering practices, such as developing spatial thinking and early concepts of water dynamics. This book shows teachers how to provide children with opportunities to engineer water movement through pouring and filling containers of various kinds…

Refraction is a foundational concept within introductory physics. Physics students need a deep understanding of refraction, including Snell's Law, in order to progress towards more complex optics topics such as lenses and images. Unfortunately, many physics students obtain only a superficial understanding of refraction. Although many students can…

Scientific thinking can be applied to things we do at home. Effective results can be achieved in cooking or cleaning while also focusing on doing so with minimal waste of resources. This can also mean better economy. Choosing appropriate designs of equipment can make certain jobs easier. Three different topics are described to demonstrate these…

Virtual water is the amount of water that we ignore in water consumption and is considerably higher than the visible water we see in daily uses. Realizing the water spent in the production processes of objects can cause us to change our consumption habits. In 1979, Joseph Cornell presented a four-step framework called Learning Flow to move nature…

Across the United States, political leaders, educators, and business persons are issuing an urgent call for reform in STEM education (NGSS Lead States 2013). One important response to this call is Integrated STEM, which the National Governor's Association (2007, p. 7) says involves, "... an emphasis on design and problem solving in…

This article presents an analogy to illustrate the effect of surface roughness on surface wettability. I used a water-filled balloon to represent water droplet, a toothpick to represent surface roughness and Styrofoam as the surface. The analogies presented in this article will help visualize how roughness affects the wettability of the surface…

Many educators have utilized the phenomenon of the so-called "hydrostatic paradox" to actively engage students in classroom instructional activities related to hydrostatic equilibrium. Various approaches requiring different levels of mathematical knowledge have been proposed in the literature to provide students clear explanations of…

A chemistry laboratory experiment using everyday items and readily available chemicals is described to introduce advanced high school students and undergraduate college students to porous polymer membranes. In a three-step manufacturing process, a membrane is produced at room temperature. The filtration principle of the membrane is then…

This article describes a five-day online energy module, developed by the Concord Consortium (an educational research and development organization) in which students compare the effects of various energy sources on air quality, water quality, and land use. The module's interactive models explore hydraulic fracturing, real-world data on energy…

This 5E cycle of lessons takes students through a fun and thorough study of Silly Putty's properties, progressing from an initial observation of a "melting snowman" toy in the Engage phase to making and "marketing" their own homemade putty in the Evaluate phase. Along the way, students use evidence to construct their own…

With crosscutting concepts such as stability and change in the "Next Generation Science Standards," this article was written for those who have wondered how to teach these concepts in a way that is relevant to students. In this investigation, students ask the question, "Why is the pond dirty?" As students investigate the health…

This study focuses on the design of a learning program to introduce complexometric titration as a method for determining water hardness in a high school chemistry laboratory. Students are introduced to the different properties and reactions of hard water in a stepwise manner so that they gain the necessary chemical knowledge and conceptual…