The study investigates the relationships between the physical learning environment (PLE), psychological characteristics (students’ academic self-efficacy and satisfaction), and higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) in statistics education. The study also aimed to determine if psychological characteristics mediate the relationships between the PLE and HOTS. A total of 285 students were selected as samples using cluster sampling. The study instruments were adapted from Smart classroom inventory, science laboratory environment inventory, test of science-related attitudes, self-efficacy in learning and performance for college, and dimension of learning rubrics. The gathered data were analysed using Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings revealed that a significant direct relationship existed between PLE and HOTS. Moreover, the PLE also did influence the students’ HOTS indirectly through psychological characteristics (academic self-efficacy and satisfaction). The findings from this study give an important and valuable contribution to knowledge in the area of HOTS research in the context of Malaysian Institution of Higher Learning. The implication of this study suggests that the good quality of PLE in statistics education would influence students’ HOTS directly and also indirectly through the positive development of psychological characteristics in teaching and learning (T&L) process. Keywords: physical learning environment, psychological characteristics, academic self-efficacy, satisfaction, higher-order thinking skills

STEM is an important stream in Malaysia education to become a developed country. However, students show less interest in this stream as there is a declining trend of students taking STEM subjects. The objective of the study is to investigate the factors that influence students’ intention to study science stream in upper secondary school. The study framework has three independent variables named attitude towards science, normative social influences, and self-efficacy and the dependent is students’ intention to study science stream. By using cluster-sampling, a total of 339 data were collected through the questionnaire survey method from two schools out of 16 schools in the rural area of Kota Bharu, Kelantan. The data was analysed using Correlation Analysis, Multiple Linear Regression, Independent T-test, and One-Way ANOVA test. The main finding of the study shows that attitude towards science, normative social influences, and self-efficacy had a significant relationship with students’ intention to study science stream in upper secondary. This study offers an insight to parents, teachers, and policymakers in improving policy and encouraging students to pursue their study in the STEM stream to achieve the government goal that earlier set the ratio of science to art students at 60:40.

Heat exchangers are tools used to transfer thermal energy between two fluids (liquid or gas) by convection and conduction at different level of temperatures. Heat exchangers are the common equipment and employed in many different applications because of ability to withstand high temperatures and compactness. There are no intermixing or leakage occurred between two fluids during the heat transfer process as fluids are separated by walls of heat exchanger. The main objective of this project is to determine the heat exchanger effectiveness in heat transfer performance. This will be done by investigating the performance of five different angles of heat exchanger which are 150,300, 450, 600 and 750. The effectiveness of heat exchanger depends on the convection heat transfer coefficient of the fluid. Besides that, this project also aims to develop some parameters such as Nusselt number, Reynolds number and Prandtl number for evaluating the heat transfer. It is found that the Nusselt Number at angle of 150 is lower compared to angle of 750. Meanwhile, Reynolds number for angle 150 is higher than angle 750 which means that the type of flow produced by angle 150 is turbulent flow while for 750 angle is laminar flow. Hence, the overall result of this project proved that 150 is the best angle for heat exchanger in chimney because of higher velocity, higher volume flow rate, higher density of gas and higher LMTD. The relationship between Nusselt number and Reynolds number between different angles can be observed by plotting the graph using Maple Software.