Design of systems thinking assessment through laboratory activities to foster sustainability awareness

Presented here are lab-based activities (LBA) that incorporate students’ systems thinking (ST) skills by having students analyse pure and artificial seawater to stimulate sustainability awareness. Those skills were demonstrated by students’ scores and explanations. The design-based research (DBR) method was applied by following three principles: First was the real educational context principle, involving sixty-two (62) 16-year-old students who live around the Southern Java coast. Second, we conducted iterative investigations by designing and testing the model, including experiments, collecting cognitive scores online, and explaining system-related ocean phenomena through in-person interviews. Third, DBR was grounded in learning theory to provide measurable students’ ST skills from the laboratory. Here, inadequate explanations about seawater pH and acidity levels hinder the ability to think in systems. The results show that participants find it difficult to recognise seawater at the particle level as a system component. While participants struggle to recognise interactions between components of ocean systems, the ST purposes that emerge from their willingness to engage with ocean protection indicate high achievement. The appearance of Systems Thinking skills in the LBA is demonstrated here.