STEM education is gaining increasing attention globally to fulfill the acute shortage of STEM workforce. Executing STEM education is frequently viewed as a complex and challenging agenda. The current study proposes Integrated STEM-lab activities in the teaching and learning of electrolysis. The activities use real-world contexts as a platform to exhibit the transdisciplinary nature of integration of the four STEM disciplines. Embedded mixed methods research used quantitative one group pre-test–post-test design, and qualitative interviews were employed to measure the effectiveness of the Integrated STEM-lab activities in improving 50 secondary school students’ (Form Four equivalent to Grade 9) understanding of electrolysis. The Electrolysis Diagnostics Instrument was administered for pre- and post-tests. One-way Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) revealed that the Integrated STEM-lab activities effectively improved the students’ understanding of electrolysis measured in three subscales (Wilks’ lambda = 0.664;F(3,96) = 16.164; p < 0.05; η = 0.336) with 33.6% of the variances in the pre- and post-tests explained by the treatment. The qualitative interview data supported and provided insight into understanding the quantitative findings. In the interviews, the students elaborated their understanding of electrolysis with details, and consistently the activities were referred to in their responses. The findings of this study suggest that Integrated-STEM lab activities are suitable to address the limitation of the existing laboratory activities for knowledge construction. The activities are exemplary for integrating the four STEM disciplines into the standard science curriculum.

Transforming the chemistry curriculum to an interdisciplinary perspective is essential for preparing students to meet interdisciplinary career demands and to brace themselves for the challenges of complex environmental and health issues. The study introduces four interdisciplinary electrochemistry STEM-lab activities as an alternative to the single disciplinary electrochemistry laboratory curriculum. The electrochemistry STEM-lab activities are designed considering the learning objectives stated in the curriculum specifications. This enables teachers to seamlessly replace the single disciplinary curriculum, which emphasizes the mastery of chemistry concepts, with the interdisciplinary curriculum that stresses applying the concepts in solving complex multidisciplinary real-world problems. The interdisciplinary curriculum allows students to learn electrochemistry concepts considering the mathematics, engineering, and technology disciplines. During the interdisciplinary electrochemistry STEM-lab activities, secondary school students exhibited collaborative teamwork and communication skills. The activities engage them in science and engineering practices, and engineering design thinking. The activities enforce crossing the boundaries between the STEM disciplines to understand the application of principles to manufacture products in industry. Eventually, the activities engender a meaningful learning context that enhances cognitive and affective outcomes.