eng Science and Education Publishing World Journal of Chemical Education 2375-1657 2019-03-24 7 2 96 101 10.12691/wjce-7-2-9 WJCE2019729 article Sarah Vortmann 1 Dominique Remy 2 J?rg Klasmeier 3 Marco Beeken Marco.Beeken@uni-osnabrueck.de 3 University of Osnabrück, Department of Chemistry Education, Osnabrück, Germany University of Osnabrück, Department of Biology Osnabrück, Germany University of Osnabrück, Department of Environmental Systems Research Osnabrück, Germany Two simple laboratory experiments for addressing the issue of microplastics in the aqueous environment in science teaching are developed. Extraction of microbeads from cosmetic products using a coffee pad machine makes students aware of the potential emission of microplastics into the environment by using these products. Density separation of microplastic particles from beach sediment samples on the other hand demonstrates the difficulty of dealing with the problem once the particles have entered the environment. Using the low-cost experimental set-up facilitates integration of the microplastics’ topic into laboratory teaching making science lessons vivid and more interesting. http://pubs.sciepub.com/wjce/7/2/9/wjce-7-2-9.pdf microplastic model experiment environmental chemistry chemistry in context low-cost method coffee pad machine science communication sediment analysis density separation procedure cosmetics