Interdisciplinary Dialogue and Project-Based Learning: Chemistry and Design Students Collaborate on Scientific Exhibition

Interdisciplinary collaborations are essential for addressing global challenges. In the field of education, interdisciplinary approaches facilitate the application of knowledge from various academic disciplines, while innovative dissemination methods, such as scientific illustration, facilitate the communication of complex topics to the general public. This work presents a project-based interdisciplinary teaching initiative. It describes the collaboration between five undergraduate students in chemistry (L3) and 12 master’s students (M2) in scientific illustration design, resulting in the creation of a scientific exhibition for the general public about luminescence processes. The project was supervised by a team of two chemistry instructors and a design educator. The exhibition, entitled “Luminescience”, comprises nine sections and employs a variety of media, including posters, videos, dioramas, interactive multimedia, and digital prints. This initiative is discussed from the perspective of chemical education as an original example of training higher education students to interdisciplinary competencies through a project-based approach. The interdisciplinary competencies and motivation were evaluated using a previously reported survey and the MUSIC (eMpowerment, Usefulness, Success, Interest, and Caring) model of motivation inventory, respectively. The project resulted in exceptionally high motivation scores, ranging from 4.29 (Usefulness) to 4.88 (Caring) on a 6-point scale, alongside significant gains in interdisciplinary competencies─specifically in group collaboration and appreciation of interdisciplinary dialogue─among students from both chemistry and design disciplines, with scores ranging from 3.94 to 5.00 on the same scale. These encouraging results demonstrate the efficacy of collaborative endeavors between students of chemistry and design, thereby paving the way for further forms of collaboration and alternative project outcomes.