Hands-on!: In the Machine Room and Gearbox of Science and STEAM Education
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Conference Paper not in Proceedings
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Accepted
Recommended form of citation (APA)
Buser, C., & Steinbach, A., Hands-on!: In the Machine Room and Gearbox of Science and STEAM Education: A Case Study [Conference Paper]. EAPRIL 2025, November 25–27, Valletta (Malta).
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metadata only (bibliographisch)
Topic PHSG
Mathematische, Naturwissenschaftliche und Technische Bildung
Fields of Science and Technology (OECD)
Natural sciences
Abstract
Laboratory experiments have always been at the core of scientific revolutions [1]. The use of experiments marked the beginning of modern science and enabled the embodiment of its insights in the technology that shape our world. And yet, we increasingly witness the absence of hand-on experiments in Swiss secondary education. A paradox, given that this is arguably the very essence of authentic STEAM education.
The more digital our educational practices become, the more deliberately we must cultivate the role of the hand and the experiment resulting in a type of dialectic between hand, experiment and AI. Meaningful STEAM education has to be comprehensive and polyphonic.
This case study presents an interdisciplinary approach that enables students to experience science from within, – somehow from the «machine room and gearbox» of scientific practice. Nowhere is science more real, more beautiful and more engaging.
We show how high-tech instruments such as titrators can be paired with dragons and riddles. We show how love, betrayal and crime are told through the lens of molecular biology using PCR (Polymerase-Chain-Reaction) and electrophoresis. Our Berzelius Project [2] is an experimental learning lab that merges high-tech instruments and multimedia lab journals with AI-assisted storytelling and playful forms of science communication.
The more digital our educational practices become, the more deliberately we must cultivate the role of the hand and the experiment resulting in a type of dialectic between hand, experiment and AI. Meaningful STEAM education has to be comprehensive and polyphonic.
This case study presents an interdisciplinary approach that enables students to experience science from within, – somehow from the «machine room and gearbox» of scientific practice. Nowhere is science more real, more beautiful and more engaging.
We show how high-tech instruments such as titrators can be paired with dragons and riddles. We show how love, betrayal and crime are told through the lens of molecular biology using PCR (Polymerase-Chain-Reaction) and electrophoresis. Our Berzelius Project [2] is an experimental learning lab that merges high-tech instruments and multimedia lab journals with AI-assisted storytelling and playful forms of science communication.
Additional Information
Our experiences from workshops, TecDays of the Swiss Academy of Technical Sciences (SATW) in schools, and the support we provide for graduate theses reveal a worrying trend: practical (laboratory) work is increasingly disappearing from Swiss secondary education. It is not uncommon for students to complete years of chemistry and biology education without ever having held a beaker, an Erlenmeyer flask or pipette. Skills such as weighing, pipetting and safely handling chemicals are unfamiliar to many – a troubling development in a subject where learning and critical thinking depends on tactile and procedural experience.
Without handling, there is no understanding
This phenomenon is not limited to STEM classrooms. Across disciplines, scholars are observing a decline in tactile interaction [3]. South Korean-German philosopher Byung-Chul Han [4] speaks of a disembodied, de-objectified, and de-corporealised world. Luciano Floridis concept of the «Inforg» [5] – a data-driven being living in an «infosphere» has arguably replaced Homo faber, the skilled artisan. But thinking and understanding are deeply linked to our hands, to touch [6]. From infants exploring the world with their hands and mouths, to the symbolism of holding hands – we learn and belong through touch. The metaphors run deep: «lend a hand», «a safe pair of hands». Hands-on experience is crucial for meaningful learning. The experiment remains one of our most important criteria for truth, particularly in the sciences.
Experiments as the engine of epistemology
Science is a continuous process of doubting, testing and correcting. Experiments are precisely posed «questions to nature». They demand patience, precision, problem-solving skills and a deep understanding of materials and processes. Through them, we test whether ideas and models hold up to reality. They form the interface between hypothesis, perception, and interpretation. Through the experiment, we gain knowledge, and it shows us what we know, and what we knowingly cannot know. The experiments catches us with all our senses. Without it, learning remains abstract and risks to foster a distorted image of sciences. Particular caution is required with number-driven sciences.
Numbers that lie truth
Quantitative sciences are often seen as objective and reliable. Yet numbers, though very familiar, can easily mislead. They need interpretation and context. One striking example from a graduate thesis: measuring signals (HPLC-measured peak areas) led to precise-looking results such as 30.9963987 mg/L aspirin (see attachment) – falsely suggesting high sensitivity and accuracy. Can a single «correct» value exist in a world of uncertainty and variation? This raises epistemological questions about the relation between data, reality and truth.
Probabilities, uncertainty and the human hand
Probability is difficult to grasp without physical anchoring. The experiment connects abstract data with sensual experience, enabling students to explore statistics and uncertainty playfully and authentically. As technology and AI permeate our lives, it becomes vital to understand the systems behind them. Without grounding in experimentation, understanding risks becoming fragmented [1].
From the experiment to data to story
Data are not facts and facts are not automatically truths [7, 8]. To become meaningful they must be interpreted and narrated. Again, the key is via our hands and the experiment. Lifeless facts must be contextualized – told. Facts alone are cold and far from truth. In our project, we offer students and their teachers multimedia crash courses on function and handling of high-tech instruments. Then, they generate their own data from samples – drinks, Lego bricks, coins … The students then scrutinise and discuss results (critical thinking) in groups (collaboration) before developing ways to tell the numbers. Thus, the Berzelius project [2] encourages students to generate and interpret their own data and turn them into «true» stories – whether a crime scene or a vibrating narrative (creativity, communication). From experiment to data to story – the 4Cs come fully alive.
Science as knowledge business and a polyphonic process
Sciences are a truth-seeking business. They must be understood as a dynamic process of knowledge production. That`s why our project anchors STEAM education in experimentation. From this, we branch into epistemology, philosophy, language, storytelling and communication. We aim for a polyphonic, joyful, immersive form of learning where all disciplines resonate. Albert Einstein, e.g., expressed the relationship between science and epistemology in the following way: «[…] They depend upon each other. Epistemology without contact with science becomes an empty scheme. Science without epistemology is – insofar as it is thinkable at all – primitive and muddled.» [9]
AI completes the hand and changes communication
The ideals of prediction and control by recognizing patterns have driven science since the 17th century. Now, AI performs this faster and better. Spectrometer algorithms (Raman and FTIR) identify substances in milliseconds. It’s likely AI will increasingly replace physical experimentation. We argue for a dialectical interplay between the hand, the experiment and AI. Collaboration, not competition. This requires us to grow alongside AI. Language models such as ChatGPT change writing and communication – and this too must be taught critically. Here, we must also foster the human skill of creative writing.
From the machine room to multimedia storytelling
In this case study, we present practical tools around the experiment that let students get hand-on with science, be inside science. They include not only our high-tech instruments but also interactive multimedia lab journals and student-produced graduate theses. In our session, we cruise through multimedia examples: escape-room riddles that pair a high-tech instrument with numbers and dragons; DNA analysis in a crime scene using PCR and electrophoresis. We also discuss the role of the hand in motion comics and animations for authentic [10] STEAM education. With our polyphonic approach that begins in the machine room and ends in multimedia storytelling, all elements of STEAM education including epistemology, language, media literacy, and the 4Cs, are not just taught but embodied, experienced, and performed.
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Literature for Case Study: Hands-on!: In the Machine Room and Gearbox of Science and STEAM Education
[1] Holm Tetens, Wissenschaftstheorie, Verlag C.H. Beck, (2013).
[2] Novotny, M. und Steinbach A., Projekt Berzelius – Im Hightech-Labor der Naturwissenschaften. c+b, Verein der Schweizer Naturwissenschafts-lehrerinnen und -lehrer, 109. Jahrgang (2024)
[3] Richard Sennett, The craftsman, Yale University Press (2008)
[4] Byun-Chul, H, Non-things: Upheaval in the Lifeworld. Polity, first Edition, (2022)
[5] Luciano Floridi, Die 4. Revolution, Suhrkamp (2015)
[6] Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition, University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1958. Vita Activa, German Translation, Piper (2016)
[7] Werner Herzog, Die Zukunft der Wahrheit, Hanser (2024)
«The future of truth» will be published in September 2025 by Penguin
[8] Markus Gabriel, The Human Animal – Why We Still Don`t Fit into Nature, John Wiley and Sons Ltd (2024)
[9] Einstein’s Philosophy of Science, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, First published Wed Feb 11, 2004; substantive revision Sun Feb 2, 2025
[10] Daniela Schriebl, Andreas Müller, Nicolas Robin, Modelling Authenticity in Science Education, Science & Education, 32, 1021–1048 (2023).
| Name of the event | Conference Host | Place of the event | Start date of the event | End date of the event |
EAPRIL 2025 | EARLI - EAPRIL Office, 3000 Leuven, Belgium | University of Malta, Valletta | November 25, 2025 | November 27, 2025 |
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