Sparking curiosity: a cross-disciplinary experiential approach to stem education through interactive flipbook design

In many classrooms, STEM is often taught in a way that leaves students mostly reading or listening, with few chances for hands-on experience due to limited budgets and incomplete lab equipment. This can make scientific concepts seem abstract and hard to connect with real life. The Sparking Curiosity Flipbook is designed to change that. It’s an interactive science handbook that brings together basic ideas from chemistry, physics, and biology through 17 simple experiments that use everyday, easy-to-find materials. The handbook isn’t just for reading—it encourages students to write down their thoughts and observations as they work through each activity. Every experiment starts with a question to spark curiosity, gives step-by-step instructions, provides space for notes, and ends with a short explanation to help students conclude. This flipbook has been used in schools, at home, and in STEM programmes, where students showed higher participation and were more eager to try the activities compared to regular worksheets. When students can explore and observe directly, their understanding becomes much deeper and more meaningful. This approach provides a practical, accessible way to support hands-on STEM learning, even when resources are limited.