[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-576468-105":59,"doc-detail-576468-en":129},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":122,"head_meta":124,"extra_data":126,"updated_unix":128},105,"en","microplastics-are-all-around-us-an-engaging-activity-for-undergraduate-biology","Microplastics Are All Around Us - An Engaging Activity for Undergraduate Biology","","Undergraduate biology teaching benefits from hands-on activities that connect lecture topics on microplastics (MPs) with students’ everyday product use. Using the smartphone app Beat the MicroBead with personal care products, students quantify potential microplastics and complete a post-activity survey. Results show students found the activity engaging, fun, and informative, with many discovering they had not known that frequently used products could contain MPs or “skeptical” MPs. Key abundant MPs and skeptical MPs were identified, and the activity fits any college biology or environmental biology course.",{"@graph":69,"@context":121},[70,84,104],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":35,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/healthcare/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/microplastics-are-all-around-us-an-engaging-activity-for-undergraduate-biology/576468/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":98,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":99,"interactionStatistic":100},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/microplastics-are-all-around-us-an-engaging-activity-for-undergraduate-biology/576468.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Logic","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":101,"interactionType":102,"userInteractionCount":4},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":103},"ViewAction",{"@type":105,"mainEntity":106},"FAQPage",[107,113,117],{"name":108,"@type":109,"acceptedAnswer":110},"What is the educational goal of the microplastics activity in undergraduate biology?","Question",{"text":111,"@type":112},"To help students connect lecture content about environmental microplastics with their own daily activities by checking whether their personal care products contain microplastics or skeptical microplastics.","Answer",{"name":114,"@type":109,"acceptedAnswer":115},"How do students carry out the activity?",{"text":116,"@type":112},"Students use the smartphone app Beat the MicroBead with selected personal care products to quantify the type and number of potential microplastics, then complete a post-activity survey.",{"name":118,"@type":109,"acceptedAnswer":119},"What did students report after completing the activity?",{"text":120,"@type":112},"They reported the activity as engaging, fun, and informative, and many indicated they had not realized commonly used products may contain microplastics, with most finding various forms of MPs or skeptical MPs.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":123,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":125,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":127,"site_id":62},576468,1792029812,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":130},{"doc_id":127,"user_id":131,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":132,"doc_module":4,"category_id":34,"category_name":35,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":133,"file_id":134,"file_url":135,"file_type":136,"file_size":137,"view_count":4,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":39,"language":138,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":139,"faqs":140,"seo_title":141,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":128,"read_time":46},1099513958762,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/1000023916a998db790?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1784791008015729253","Articles  \nMicroplastics Are All Around Us: An Engaging Activity for Undergraduate Biology  \nMajors  \nShem D. Unger*, Mark Rollins  \nBiology Department, Wingate University, Wingate, NC 28174  \n*corresponding author: [s.unger@wingate.edu](s.unger@wingate.edu)  \n\n| Abstract\u003Cbr>When teaching undergraduate biology courses, developing engaging activities which allow students to learn using a hands-on pedagogy can provide impactful learning moments for students. This activity helps students make connections between lecture content on environmental issues, e.g., the use of microplastics (MPs) and their own day-to-day activities by learning whether or not the products they use regularly contain microplastics or skeptical microplastics. Using a smartphone app (Beat the MicroBead) and personal care products, students quantify the type and number of potential microplastics and complete a post-activity survey. Overall, students found the activity engaging, fun, and informative. Students also report on not realizing the products they frequently use may contain plastics, with the majority finding various forms of microplastics or skeptical microplastics. Students identified Dimethicone, Carbomer, and Acrylates Copolymer as the most abundant MPs, and Cyclopentasiloxane, Polysorbate 20, and Ceteareth-20, as the most abundant skeptical MPs present in their personal care and cosmetic products. Students found on average at least 4/10 and 5/10 products containing MPs or skeptical MPs, respectively, with most students responding they had not heard of MPs before this activity. This activity can be incorporated into any college biology or environmental biology course.\u003Cbr>Keywords: teaching, pedagogy, undergraduate biology, plastic pollution, microbeads, conservation |  |\n| --- | --- |\n| Introduction\u003Cbr>Plastic pollution of aquatic environments, both freshwater streams and marine habitats, is an emerging environmental issue (Conkle et al., 2018) . This issue is among the world’s major threats to ecosystems given the long-term persistence of many plastic products in the environment (Geyer et al., 2017) . Microbeads, which have previously been recognized as a problem as their wide-stream use in cosmetics and other products were largely banned in the US with the Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015 (Strifling, 2016) . However, microplastics (MPs), plastic particles under 5 mm in size, are still found as ingredients in a variety of personal care and cosmetic products (Guerranti et al., 2019), including toothpaste, deodorant, soap, lipstick, moisturizers, etc. (Bhattacharya, 2016; Ustabasi & Baysal, 2019) . Moreover, these personal care and cosmetic products (PCCPs), contain potentially harmful microplastics and are widely | available for purchase, and are also present in the environment (Bashir et al., 2021; Zhou et al., 2023) . These PCCPs containing MPs can be a source for persistent, potentially harmful plastic materials released into aquatic environments (Fendall & Sewell, 2009), due to being hydrophobic, dense, and small, these MPs from PCCPs have the potential to only be partially captured in wastewater treatment processing plants, thus potentially entering the aquatic ecosystem as effluents (Habib et al., 2022) . Therefore, educating the public on the risk of MP-containing products entering aquatic ecosystems is of the utmost importance (Bhattacharya, 2016), with science students asan ideal cohort for environmental education.\u003Cbr>Methods for teaching students about microplastic pollution in the environment include the use of board games (Adjiningsih & Sriwattanarothai, 2022), websites (Reed & Chen, 2022), or active learning approaches in outreach |\n\nVolume 49 (2) December 2023 Unger, S.D. & Rollins, M. Microplastics Are All Around Us: An Engaging Activity ………. 3  \neducation to teach the chemical structures and how plastics break down in the ocean (Schiffer et al., 2020) . Additional approaches include developing learning modules emphasizing sources of","cbCaiscRVRvrjC2k","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiscRVRvrjC2k","pdf",239796,"English","# Abstract\n# Introduction\n# Methods\n# Procedure","[{\"question\":\"What is the educational goal of the microplastics activity in undergraduate biology?\",\"answer\":\"To help students connect lecture content about environmental microplastics with their own daily activities by checking whether their personal care products contain microplastics or skeptical microplastics.\"},{\"question\":\"How do students carry out the activity?\",\"answer\":\"Students use the smartphone app Beat the MicroBead with selected personal care products to quantify the type and number of potential microplastics, then complete a post-activity survey.\"},{\"question\":\"What did students report after completing the activity?\",\"answer\":\"They reported the activity as engaging, fun, and informative, and many indicated they had not realized commonly used products may contain microplastics, with most finding various forms of MPs or skeptical MPs.\"}]","Microplastics Are All Around Us - An Engaging Activity for Undergraduate Biology | PDF"]