<p>Seiring dengan perkembangan jaman yang semakin pesat, peran pendidikan menjadi sangat penting dalam mempersiapkan peserta didik agar memiliki keterampilan abad 21. Salah satu upaya untuk menjawab tantangan ini dengan merubah peran guru dari dari penyedia dan peyampai informasi menjadi fasilitator untuk berbagi informasi dan pengetahuan serta melatihkan kemampuan memecahkan masalah kepada peserta didik. Pembelajaran konstruktivisme menjadi salah satu alternatif dalam melatihkan keterampilan abad 21. Model pembelajaran <em>project based learning</em> dan <em>problem based learning</em> menjadi model yang paling poluler pada pendekatan konstruktivisme. Namun, masih banyak para pendidik yang mengalami kebingungan dalam membedakan dan mengoperasikan  kedua model pembelajaran ini. Oleh karena itu, artikel ini mengulas persamaan dan perbedaan antara <em>project based learning </em>dan <em>problem based learning</em>, serta menjawab apakah kedua model pembelajaran tersebut mampu melatihkan keterampilan abad 21.</p>

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This paper discusses laboratory activities that can improve the meaningfulness of natural product chemistry course. These laboratory activities can be useful for students from many different disciplines including chemistry, pharmacy, and medicine. Students at the third-year undergraduate level of chemistry education undertake the project to isolate secondary metabolites from medicinal plants. This project provides opportunities for students to design their own activities to isolate secondary metabolites from medicinal plants. Students were exposed to skills as extraction, fractionation, purification, and structural elucidation of secondary metabolites. In this project, two secondary metabolites were successfully isolated from medicinal plants. The implementation of this project improved students’ understanding of natural product chemistry.

This research aims to investigate effect of learning using natural product mini project laboratory on students’ critical thinking skills. The research was conducted on sixth semester of 59 students of chemistry and chemistry education program from one of the state universities in West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia in 2012/2013. This research revealed class where the student learn using natural product mini project laboratory had more critical thinking skills than those using verification laboratory. The average n-gain of critical thinking skills for experiment class was 0.58 while for the control class was 0.37. The highest n-gain in the experiment class was 0.70 for “deciding on an action (selecting criteria to judge possible solutions) indicators”, while the smallest n-gain was 0.47 for “the making and judging value of judgments (balancing, weighing, and deciding) indicators. We concluded that the natural product mini project laboratory was better than verification laboratory in improving the students’ critical thinking skills.