Developing a Green Chemistry Focused General Chemistry Laboratory Curriculum: What Do Students Understand and Value about Green Chemistry?

Abstract

Over the past several decades, green chemistry has gained prominence in chemistry education. However, the development of green chemistry curricula has not reached all levels of education equally, focusing mainly on elective and upper division courses. We deliberately focused our green chemistry curriculum redesign on a high enrollment introductory general chemistry laboratory course at the University of California, Berkeley. We developed over 30 new experiments that introduced students to green chemistry concepts and applications, while maintaining canonical general chemistry learning goals. The context of the curriculum and required course assignments encouraged students to use green chemistry principles to explore and solve real-world problems. After completing this redesigned course, we hypothesized that students would value green chemistry and feel more confident in their green chemistry knowledge. We developed new methods to measure students’ attitudes toward and understanding of green chemistry as a system instead of isolated reactions or processes. These assessments allowed us to better understand both the progression and limitations in student green chemistry and systems-thinking. Since over 2000 students complete the laboratory course each year, we used a combination of fixed response items and free response items from online surveys and in-class assignments and exams. This approach allowed efficient assessment of thousands of students, while still gaining valuable and nuanced views of student understanding and attitudes. These assessments indicated that the new general chemistry laboratory curriculum succeeded in providing an environment in which students learned green chemistry concepts and realized that chemistry has connections to their future courses and professions.

Sustainable Polymers Square Table Final Report

“…68 While sustainable concepts and green chemistry have been primarily showcased in upper level elective 69,70 and organic chemistry lab courses, 71,72,73,74 efforts have been made to expand the curriculum into introductory 75,76,77 and general chemistry courses. 78,79,80 The lack of green chemistry content in organic chemistry textbooks has been explored and it has been suggested that connections to societal issues and sustainability contribute to the development of leadership skills. 81 The existing literature in green chemistry can be used as a template to develop strategies to fully integrate sustainable polymers into the curriculum.…”

Environmental Sustainability Evaluation of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles Synthesized via Green Synthesis and the Coprecipitation Method: A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment Study

“…This is addressed from an analytical life-cycle approach, allowing to address strategies, involving environmental management systems, circular economy, and industrial ecology . Green analytical chemistry is a tool used for the scientific community, involving chemists and engineers, to implement the principles toward the synthesis, processing, analysis, and end-of-life of products . New techniques and methods, such as green synthesis, have to be alternatives for reducing and eliminating hazardous compounds and wastes, aiming for environmental sustainability at the laboratory and industrial scale …”

Experimental Work in Science Education from Green Chemistry Perspectives: A Systematic Literature Review Using PRISMA

“…As shown in the review by Andraos and Dicks [12], various approaches have been developed to introduce students to green chemistry ideas, e.g., the introduction of green chemistry into the curriculum [14,27,28], textbooks, and other learning materials [29][30][31], lectures and full courses in green chemistry [32][33][34], various types of metrics for determining the "greenness" of a chemical reaction [35][36][37][38], and experimental work related to the green chemistry principles [39][40][41][42].…”