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Graphene is a novel material with extraordinary promise in various nano-based applications, including increases in strength, conductivity, filtration, and electrical capacity. Graphene can be synthesized and tested in a wide variety of applications in secondary or undergraduate settings. Allowing students to choose their own application and method of testing the graphene they synthesize is an engaging and authentic project based on engineering design and grounded in the tenets of constructivism. One of the many possible applications, reinforcement of paper mache by graphene, is easily adapted, uses familiar materials and methods, is cheap, and is easy to test. This student-centered project has led to increases in student content knowledge and lab skills. It increases students' confidence in designing their own solutions, analyzing data, and using scientific inquiry and engineering design.

Engineering design, a framework for studying and solving societal problems, is a key component of STEM education. It is also the area of greatest challenge within the Next Generation Science Standards, NGSS. Many teachers feel underprepared to teach or create activities that feature engineering design, and integrating a lesson plan of core content with an engineering design perspective can be a daunting task. Nevertheless, engineering design can be a useful tool in building students' confidence in science, engaging students in science classes, building relationships with the community, and empowering under-represented groups. The problem-solving approach of engineering design can become a template for how a teacher creates new engineering design activities. Engineering design is an ally to the teacher framing the process so that a teacher can creatively and collaboratively find innovative ways to reach and teach their students. The Engineering Design Wheel for Teachers can help teachers to get organized, and the Engineering Design Quality Framework can help a teacher to self-assess the newly created activity.

Engineering design is an ideal perspective for engaging students in college science classes. An engineering design problem-solving framework was used to create a general chemistry lab activity focused on an important environmental issue--dead zones. Dead zones impact over 400 locations around the world and are a result of nutrient pollution, one of the most logistically and economically challenging environmental problems facing our world today. The activities created were found to aid student learning and improve student attitudes toward science and research. Specifically, over 90% of students reported learning more from these activities than from traditional activities because of the independent thinking and freedom to design and implement their own experiments using the engineering design approach. The engineering design framework helps to engage the student and allows for content gains while promoting creativity and collaboration.

A multipart laboratory activity introducing microbeads was created to meet engineering and engineering design practices consistent with new Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Microbeads are a current topic of concern as they have been found to cause adverse impacts in both marine and freshwater systems resulting in multiple states proposing or adopting legislation to ban their manufacture or sale. The activity allows for student inquiry, discovery, and engineering design using inexpensive, readily available, and safe chemicals. In addition, the products tested (toothpastes, facial-cleansers, and/or hand-cleansers) will be familiar items to the students, stressing the ubiquitous nature of chemistry. The activity fostered confidence in the students through designing and testing procedures, introduced them to a topic that most knew nothing about, and drew praise for achieving the learning goals while investigating a relevant real-world problem.

At the beginning of last century, the hero of Joseph Furphy's Such is Life roamed around a Riverina the extent of which no-one agreed on. These days, statisticians have agreed [...]