Developing middle school students’ problem-solving ability through interdisciplinary project-based learning

Problem-solving ability is one of the most important skills of Chemical engineers. This case study aims to describe how students develop problem-solving ability in interdisciplinary project-based learning activity. 7 groups of middle school students participate in a one-month “home-made oxygenators” project, designing and producing oxygenators that meet the situational requirements by themselves, and showcase their production. Project task handouts, chat logs, student presentations, student works, contribution surveys, standardized tests, and interest questionnaire are the data sources of this study. The results show that the vast majority of student groups creatively use different principles to produce oxygenators with different functions, in which students clarify and identify problems progressively, create solutions by applying multidisciplinary knowledge, select the best solution through group argumentation, and optimize the solution in practice continuously, so that they develop the problem-solving ability throughout the whole process. Moreover, participants in the activity show more remarkable improvement in their academic performance and interest in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering compared to non-participants.