<p>Seiring dengan perkembangan jaman yang semakin pesat, peran pendidikan menjadi sangat penting dalam mempersiapkan peserta didik agar memiliki keterampilan abad 21. Salah satu upaya untuk menjawab tantangan ini dengan merubah peran guru dari dari penyedia dan peyampai informasi menjadi fasilitator untuk berbagi informasi dan pengetahuan serta melatihkan kemampuan memecahkan masalah kepada peserta didik. Pembelajaran konstruktivisme menjadi salah satu alternatif dalam melatihkan keterampilan abad 21. Model pembelajaran <em>project based learning</em> dan <em>problem based learning</em> menjadi model yang paling poluler pada pendekatan konstruktivisme. Namun, masih banyak para pendidik yang mengalami kebingungan dalam membedakan dan mengoperasikan  kedua model pembelajaran ini. Oleh karena itu, artikel ini mengulas persamaan dan perbedaan antara <em>project based learning </em>dan <em>problem based learning</em>, serta menjawab apakah kedua model pembelajaran tersebut mampu melatihkan keterampilan abad 21.</p>

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This paper discusses laboratory activities that can improve the meaningfulness of natural product chemistry course. These laboratory activities can be useful for students from many different disciplines including chemistry, pharmacy, and medicine. Students at the third-year undergraduate level of chemistry education undertake the project to isolate secondary metabolites from medicinal plants. This project provides opportunities for students to design their own activities to isolate secondary metabolites from medicinal plants. Students were exposed to skills as extraction, fractionation, purification, and structural elucidation of secondary metabolites. In this project, two secondary metabolites were successfully isolated from medicinal plants. The implementation of this project improved students’ understanding of natural product chemistry.

This research aims to investigate effect of learning using natural product mini project laboratory on students’ critical thinking skills. The research was conducted on sixth semester of 59 students of chemistry and chemistry education program from one of the state universities in West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia in 2012/2013. This research revealed class where the student learn using natural product mini project laboratory had more critical thinking skills than those using verification laboratory. The average n-gain of critical thinking skills for experiment class was 0.58 while for the control class was 0.37. The highest n-gain in the experiment class was 0.70 for “deciding on an action (selecting criteria to judge possible solutions) indicators”, while the smallest n-gain was 0.47 for “the making and judging value of judgments (balancing, weighing, and deciding) indicators. We concluded that the natural product mini project laboratory was better than verification laboratory in improving the students’ critical thinking skills.

Research on the potency of essential oils as diesel fuel bio-additives has been reported. It also has been found out that clove oil has a better performance than turpentine oil on decreasing Break Specific Fuel Consumption (BSFC) and reduces the exhaust emissions of the engine. Clove oil is essential oil the content of which is made of eugenol acting as the main component. Eugenol has a bulky structure, two oxygen atoms and can form eugenyl acetate from ester reaction. Eugenyl acetate has a bulkier structure and higher oxygen content than eugenol which leads to optimizing the process of fuel combustion. This experiment can give information about the potency of the bio-additive based on clove oil and eugenol and about the influence of oxygen enrichment with eugenol on the performance of the diesel fuel bio-additive. In general, this experiment covered three stages. The first step is the characterization of the diesel fuel bio-additive using a GCMS and FTIR spectrophotometer. The second step is the characterization of the diesel fuel bio-additive and composition optimization. The final step is conducting a diesel fuel bio-additive performance test on one cylinder engine on a laboratory scale. The results of the carried out experiment show that clove oil, eugenol and eugenyl acetate can decrease Break Specific Fuel Consumption (BSFC) and reduce the exhaust emissions of the engine as well as oxygen enrichment can help in reaching optimal fuel combustion.

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This preliminary study aims at developing a program to improve teacher candidate students' conceptions on the topic of states of matter and their changes by using Predict-Observe-Explain (POE) strategy. This study employs pre-experimental method. The subjects involved were third-semester students of a primary school teacher education study program (Pendidikan Guru Sekolah Dasar -PGSD) in a university in West Java, Academic Year 2017/2018. The research instrument was a five-tiered diagnostic test in the form of multiple-choice. The instrument had gone through expert and empirical validation processes, which were provided before and after the implementation of the POE strategy. The data obtained were analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics (t-test). The results showed that the use of POE strategy was able to improve the students' comprehension on the concept of states of matter and their changes either at macroscopic level (N-gain 0.32, p=0.00), submicroscopic level (verbal N-gain 0.44; p=0.00, and visual Ngain 0.49; p=0.00), or symbolic level (N-gain 0.41; p= 0.00). The acquired N-gain indicated the need for further research to improve the course program of states of matter and their changes using the POE strategy to obtain higher N-gain that indicates the need for improvement of the program, including the processes and aids of the course.