The Development of STEM-Based Teaching Materials to Enhance Students' Critical Thinking Skills

This study is developmental research aimed at analyzing the development results of STEM-based physics teaching materials, practitioners' responses, and the effectiveness of STEM-based physics teaching materials in enhancing students' critical thinking skills. The research trial subjects were 28 Grade XI Science students at MA Darul Fallaah Unismuh. The STEM-based physics teaching material development model used was the 4-D instructional model, which consists of Define, Design, Develop, and Disseminate. The research instruments included: Validation sheets for STEM-based physics teaching materials Practitioners' assessment questionnaires Critical thinking skills test instrumentsFindings: 1) STEM-based physics teaching materials were declared valid and feasible for use, with physics material integrated into the STEM approach and a collection of questions aligned with critical thinking skill indicators. 2) Practitioners' responses, particularly physics teachers, placed the developed teaching materials in the "Very Good" category. 3) Effectiveness analysis showed that STEM-based physics teaching materials improved students' critical thinking skills, with an N-Gain score of 0.53, categorized as moderate. Students demonstrated improvements in interpretation, analysis, inference, evaluation, and explanation indicators. These results indicate that the STEM-based physics teaching materials developed in this study are effective in enhancing students' critical thinking skills.