An elective course, Toward the Greening of Our Minds: Green and Sustainable Chemistry, has been offered at Washington College since 2005. This new course without laboratory is designed for chemistry and biology majors and minors who have previously taken two semesters of general chemistry and organic chemistry. Due to the popularity of the course, the enrollment nearly doubled since 2005. Specific changes needed to be implemented to respond to students’ feedback and needs but also to account for the expansion of the field of green chemistry. The original goals associated with this course are still incorporated yet are now addressed differently to provide students with up-to-date, quantitative, and skillful knowledge of green chemistry applications and metrics. The ultimate goal is for students to use their critical thinking skills to produce an innovation proposal and to become responsible citizens of the 21st century.

Success in chemistry in the 21st century requires not only a mastery of important chemical concepts, but also the skills to apply this knowledge to important societal issues and the ability to effectively convey scientific information using a range of media. In response to this challenge we have developed an innovative four-credit seminar that comprehensively integrates the skills needed for chemistry majors to become successful professionals and experts in the chemistry field. It is expected that after taking this course chemistry majors will (i) develop scientific literature proficiency; (ii) gain valuable career preparation/marketing skills; (iii) enhance their scientific communication skills (oral, written, and visual); (iv) increase their awareness for research ethics codes and policies; and (v) gain an appreciation for the role of chemistry in contemporary moral/societal issues, particularly sustainable science literacy. Details pertaining to the design of the course such as learning objectives, assessment outcomes, impacts of the new course, along with student views on how this new course influenced their level of preparation for the work force, and future directions are presented.

No abstract

Nowadays environmentally friendly scientists are conscious about the need to make chemistry "greener". The success of green chemistry depends on the training of the students of today. Facing the need to open students' minds on the greener side of chemistry, a new special-topics course has been developed that covers both the theoretical and practical aspects of green chemistry. The main goal of this course is to motivate the students to use their critical-thinking and problem-solving ability in learning about green chemistry. The originality of this course arises from the unique combination of using diverse pedagogical tools to teach a new chemistry topic as well as the active-learning approach engaging the students in the course material. The course goals, instructional materials, format of the course, grading, evaluation, conclusions of the course are detailed in this article and corresponding Supplemental Material. This outline is designed to provide a model to instructors wishing to integrate a green chemistry course in their curriculum.

No abstract