This paper systematically expounds the formation mechanism and applications of the coffee ring effect by integrating the knowledge of intermolecular forces and surface chemistry, and further explores the chemistry education resources contained within it. It aims to help students perceive the chemical charm of microscopic forces shaping the macroscopic world, extend the reach of cutting-edge technology to a wider group of people, and turn this ordinary phenomenon into a source of motivation for scientific cognition and technological innovation.

Scientific argumentation is an essential scientific practice. Based on the fundamental framework of scientific argumentation,it is both related to and distinct from scientific explanation. In chemical argumentation,emphasis is placed on obtaining first-hand evidence,prioritizing empirically validated evidence,and avoiding “inferentially-derived evidence” as much as possible. The sources of chemical evidence include macroscopic evidence,microscopic evidence,symbolic evidence and data evidence. The basis of reasoning serves as the premise for inference. By deconstructing existing viewpoints → identifying key elements of the viewpoint → structured expression → testing and evaluation,a mechanism for mechanism reasoning in chemistry can be established. According to the different objectives of chemical argumentation tasks,chemical argumentation can be categorized into three types: confirmatory argumentation,refutational argumentation,and evaluative argumentation.

Compared to the traditional “point-based scoring”,the tiered scoring criteria can better achieve literacy-oriented chemical learning evaluation by effectively distinguishing students’ core competency levels in problem-solving. Taking test questions from different knowledge themes as examples,this study explores the design path for tiered scoring criteria in literacy-oriented chemistry assessments. Based on defining the literacy evaluation dimensions and indicators for relevant test questions,it analyzes students’ cognitive perspectives,reasoning approaches,and types of thinking methods to establish an evaluation framework and performance levels. By adjusting the division and descriptions of performance levels in conjunction with students’ responses,a tiered scoring standard is formed.

Focusing on “gas water heaters” as the theme,this extension course“Investigating the Evolution and Rational Use of Household Fuels”integrates interdisciplinary content from chemistry,physics,and engineering. It is designed around four core tasks: “exploring principles” “iterative design” “scenario applications” and “model building”. By leveraging the clear evolutionary logic of water heater development: from direct-vent to flue-vent,then forced-draft,and finally balanced-flue types,the course aims to broaden students’ understanding of household fuels and cultivate their interdisciplinary problem-solving abilities and engineering mindset.

Taking “acid-base imbalance of paddy field soil” as the real situation and “designing the improvement scheme of acid-base properties of paddy field soil” as the driving task,structured teaching was carried out. In this lesson,students understand the concept of hydrolysis equilibrium constant through the derivation of hydrolysis equilibrium constant and ionization equilibrium constant. By analyzing the acid-base properties of salt solutions,a thinking model for solving real situational problems using hydrolysis equilibrium constant is established. The model is applied to explain the acid-base properties of acid salts,mixed salts and buffer solutions,forming the thinking and methods for judging the acid-base properties of complex salt solution systems,and cultivating students’ logical reasoning and model construction abilities.

To help senior high school students understand energy conversion in chemical reactions from a holistic,dynamic,and interconnected perspective,and to enhance their systems thinking skills in solving engineering problems,a three-lesson interdisciplinary project-based learning activity entitled “wind power energy system design” was implemented in the third year of senior high school. Grounded in the three-level model of systems thinking proposed by Ben-Zvi-Assaraf and Orion,the project used the local wind power industry as an authentic context. Students were guided to decompose the wind power energy system into three subsystems: energy conversion,electrical energy storage,and intelligent control. Using the SOCME map as a cognitive scaffold,the project employed a progressive sequence of tasks:“system identification → element association → model construction → comprehensive optimization”,to drive students to integrate multidisciplinary knowledge from chemistry,physics,information technology,and engineering to complete interdisciplinary project activities. Teaching practice demonstrates that this project effectively enhances students’ systems thinking,interdisciplinary problem-solving skills,and sense of social responsibility,providing an operational pathway for implementing core competencies in high school chemistry education.

Using the “life cycle of plastics” as the context and driven by the socio-scientific issue of “how to balance the convenience of plastics with environmental responsibility”,this paper constructs a project-based learning framework following the logical chain of “synthesis (structural basis) → modification (performance control) → degradation (environmental fate) → green (future development)”. Students engage in exploration and decision-making around real-world issues such as plastic safety,environmental pollution,and sustainable material choices. This process helps them crystallize chemical perspectives such as “structure determines properties” “weak bond design” and “green chemistry principles” thereby promoting the integrated development of core competencies including “evidence-based reasoning and model cognition” and “scientific attitude and social responsibility”. Through project-based learning,students transform from passive recipients into explorers,evaluators,and solution designers of the issue,achieving the transfer and application of chemical knowledge to real-world social problems.

Under the guidance of core competencies,transforming cutting-edge technologies into deep learning materials remains a challenge in high school chemistry education reform. Based on the STSE educational philosophy,this study uses the real-world project “designing a space station carbon capture system” to integrate the 2025 Nobel Prize-winning MOFs materials into a project-based teaching case that combines scientific inquiry,technological design,and engineering thinking. Through four stages of “demand definition,structural analysis,performance optimization,system integration”,students are guided from understanding microscopic structures to constructing macroscopic systems,fostering the coordinated development of core competencies. This approach provides a practical pathway for introducing advanced topics,integrating STSE principles,and cultivating engineering thinking and the ability to systematically solve complex problems.

To address the limitations of the traditional “error-avoidance” approach in secondary science laboratory teaching,which tends to constrain students’ exploratory abilities,this study introduced Productive Failure theory into a 16-session project-based learning (PBL) curriculum. Using the school-based STEM course “preparation of transparent wood” at Changjun High School as a case,the study illustrates how carefully designed failure nodes can guide students toward deeper thinking. The relevant polymerization mechanism and kinetic features were further interpreted from a materials chemistry perspective. Discourse analysis based on the SOLO taxonomy showed that the proportion of students demonstrating deep scientific discourse at the relational level or above increased from 18% to 79%. The findings suggest that this instructional model can effectively enhance students’ ability to connect macroscopic and microscopic perspectives and to engage in evidence-based reasoning,thereby providing a practical reference for the cultivation of top-notch innovative talents.

The Technology Acceptance Model was applied to investigating 807 middle school students’ acceptance beliefs toward chemistry-related extracurricular interdisciplinary practical activities,who participated in the “I and Chemistry” activity in Guangzhou. Using latent profile analysis,students were classified into two groups: a high acceptance belief group and a moderate acceptance belief group. Both groups demonstrated strong perceived usefulness,perceived ease of participation,perceived enjoyment,self-efficacy,and future intention,along with moderate levels of participation anxiety and relatively high cognitive load. Interaction effects were found between profile groups and work category groups in terms of perceived enjoyment,and between profile groups and regional groups in terms of perceived usefulness (specifically in the sub-dimensions of interdisciplinary integration and competency development). No interaction effect was found with gender. Students’ future intention to participate in activities was influenced by perceived enjoyment,self-efficacy,cognitive load,perceived usefulness,and perceived ease of participation. The study proposes the implementation of progressive problem-solving scaffolds,structured guidance throughout the activity process,and attention to the sequential changes in students’ acceptance beliefs.

Generative artificial intelligence technology is being increasingly applied in the field of chemistry education. This study focuses on lesson cases utilizing AI from the 2025 Jiangsu Province junior high school chemistry model lesson showcase. Employing content analysis,it conducts quantitative analysis and qualitative interpretation of classroom data to examine the core characteristics,application outcomes,existing issues and strategies regarding the integration of generative AI into chemistry lessons. Although the case studies demonstrated AI solutions designed by teachers to address various teaching challenges,they also revealed issues such as monotonous human-machine interaction patterns,a situation where multimodal form outweighs content,excessive delegation of assessment responsibilities to AI,and students’ passive use of AI. Based on the research analysis,it is recommended that these issues be addressed by enhancing the exploratory nature of human-machine dialogue,reinforcing purposefulness and teacher-led instruction,restructuring assessment design,and establishing collaborative application models between teachers and students. This paper reflects on three dimensions:the enhancement of teachers’ AI literacy,methodological limitations,and future research directions,with the aim of providing insights for the profound transformation of chemistry education in the era of artificial intelligence.

Aiming at the cognitive misconceptions in the syringe experiment of NO₂ in senior high school chemistry,this study adopts handheld technology to reconstruct the teaching process. The research findings indicate that traditional teaching tends to simplistically attribute the slow pressure drop after compression to the rightward shift of the chemical equilibrium caused by increased pressure,while neglecting the interference of transient leftward equilibrium shift induced by abrupt temperature rise. By introducing pressure and temperature sensors,conducting controlled experiments and carrying out data comparison,the study corrects the valid evidence,further cultivates students’ awareness of variable control and their ability in evidence-based reasoning,and thus provides a paradigm for transforming textbook experiments into a carrier for higher-order thinking training.

In the high school chemistry experiment of “ethanol catalytic oxidation”,the detection of the product acetaldehyde primarily relies on subjective sniffing. Traditional improvement methods suffer from issues such as the thermal decomposition of Schiff’s reagent,which can lead to false-positive results. This study designs and synthesizes a 5-(methoxycarbonyl)salicylaldehyde hydrazone probe that exhibits a specific response to acetaldehyde. The probe reacts with acetaldehyde to form 5-(methoxycarbonyl)salicylaldehyde acetaldehyde hydrazone,which possesses aggregation-induced emission (AIE) properties,enabling highly sensitive,selective,and real-time visual detection of acetaldehyde in the reaction system. This method allows for the visual observation of fluorescence changes under a portable ultraviolet lamp,offering distinct phenomena and simple operation. It effectively overcomes the limitations of traditional detection methods,which are often non-intuitive and prone to false positives. This improvement not only enhances the inquiry-based and scientific nature of the ethanol catalytic oxidation experiment but also integrates China’s original cutting-edge knowledge of AIE. By strengthening students’ evidence-based awareness and scientific thinking,it fosters their confidence in science and technology as well as national pride. This study provides an innovative example for high school chemistry experiment teaching,characterized by visualization,evidence-based practices,and educational value.

As the concrete carrier of abstract scientific concepts, representation serves as a pivotal cognitive mediator for students’ construction of scientific ideas. Scientific representational competence is the key driver that enables students to transition from passive decoding of representational forms to the active construction of representational meaning. Through a review of research in this field, it is found that the connotation of scientific representational competence possesses dual characteristics: both implicit and explicit. In terms of assessment methods, it encompasses both process-oriented evaluations (such as eye-tracking and verbal protocols) and outcome-oriented measures (including psychometric scales and AI-assisted assessments). Furthermore, the cultivation of scientific representational competence increasingly relies on educational technology. Future research should consider introducing social semiotics to reconstruct the definition of scientific representational competence to bridge the divergence of dualistic perspectives. Moreover, empirical assessment research is needed to deconstruct its skill components and the logical sequential relationships between them. Finally, instructional frameworks should be employed to regulate the application of technology, thereby precisely driving the development of scientific representational competence.

The Nature of Science (NOS),as a key dimension of scientific literacy,plays a crucial role in shaping students’ understanding of science through its representation and quality in textbooks. This study systematically reviews 41 international empirical studies,focusing on the main methodological approaches used in NOS content analysis. The identified approaches include quantitative content analysis represented by keyword-based analysis; deductive qualitative content analysis based on quality assessment and structural distribution,deductive-inductive approaches,and diachronic-context-oriented analysis; as well as mixed methods incorporating Epistemic Network Analysis. The results indicate that no single method can simultaneously address the demands for content coverage,interpretive depth,and structural associations,whereas mixed methods integrating both qualitative and quantitative orientations can effectively enhance analytical validity. The study further proposes pathways for methodological optimization,including interdisciplinary integration,data standardization,and culturally sensitive design,to promote the collaborative advancement of curriculum materials research and teaching practice.

In 1859,Planté proposed the hypothesis of “electricity generation through redox reactions” based on the “secondary current” phenomenon observed by earlier scientists,and invented the world’s first lead-acid battery. In the late 19th century,the demand for mobile power sources in the electrical industry drove the practical application of pasted plates and alloy grid technologies; lead-acid batteries thus became the first secondary batteries to achieve large-scale commercialization. In the mid-to-late 20th century,breakthroughs in valve-regulated sealed technology effectively solved the problems of water loss and acid mist pollution,leading to the widespread adoption of maintenance-free lead-acid batteries. In the 21st century,the development of the energy storage industry has provided new directions for the research and development of super lead-acid batteries,enabling traditional technologies to continue innovating in new scenarios. Over more than a century,the evolution of lead-acid batteries has remained rooted in the practical needs of society,tracing a path from the laboratory to the production line,and from performance-driven improvements to environmentally coordinated development.