Enhancing Science Teaching through Performing Marbling Art Using Basic Solutions and Base Indicators

Basic solutions are an indispensable part of our daily life. Basic solutions are commonly used in industries such as the textile industry, oil refineries, the fertilizer industry, and pharmaceutical products. Most cleaning agents, such as soap, detergent, and bleach, and some of our foods, such as chocolate and eggs, include bases. Bases are the fundamental concepts of chemistry. Indicators are chemical compounds that can be added to solution to determine whether it is a base or not. This article describes an activity whose primary aim is to teach base indicators to preservice elementary teachers. In this activity, the authors turned the traditional art of marbling into something achievable with the chemical substances that are the basic solutions and base indicators found in nearly all chemistry laboratories. Therefore, this activity can be called chemical marbling. The preservice elementary teachers learned the base indicators and basic solutions throughout this activity. The purpose of the study is not only to teach the science concepts to the preservice elementary teachers with fun but also to promote the development of their attitudes toward science, creativity, and aesthetic feelings. Suggestions stress that chemical marbling might be a good tool to acquire the preservice elementary teachers’ cognitive and affective learning outcomes.