Teaching Green and Sustainable Chemistry: A Revised One-Semester Course Based on Inspirations and Challenges

Abstract

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.

The role of green chemistry activities in fostering secondary school students' understanding of acid–base concepts and argumentation skills

“…This is possible because the nature of the course on green chemistry itself permits students to communicate their ideas while making decision about the green processes in parallel to the increasing depth of knowledge and awareness of sustainable initiatives in other countries (Marteel-Parrish, 2014). Argumentation shifts the emphasis of science teaching from imparting content towards educating the students on the importance applying the content in and to real life contexts .…”

“…Additionally, green chemistry has been presented using problem-based case study approaches, whereby the students are exposed to the challenges to developing alternatives (e.g. In another case study, chemistry and biology undergraduate majors and minors became more competent in using green chemistry metrics, assessing the traditional and greener products and have better grasp on the role of toxicology as a result of learning a non-laboratory green chemistry course (Marteel-Parrish, 2014). On the other hand, product life cycle analysis constitutes an approach that unites green chemistry principles, sustainable chemistry, and engineering.…”

Sustainability in the Chemistry Curriculum: A Call for Action

“…Notably, this green chemistry supplement highlights the importance of systems thinking; that is, the need to view components as part of a greater whole, acknowledging the interactions among them . Additionally, recent journal articles and the references within them offer excellent resources for teaching and learning green chemistry …”

Untitled

“…Students are perceived to be a part of classroom community and finally they will feel respected and appreciated. Active learning improves the students' performance on course assessments, students' perceptions of inclusiveness in the classroom, enhance their retention of information, and escalate standardized exam scores (Freeman et al, 2014;Marteel-Parrish, 2014). This approach also provides the connection between students and instructors, thus instructors are able to evaluate students' understanding in real time.…”