Search

A multidisciplinary, team-taught, introductory course that has been taught for several years at The Evergreen State College is described. Water, the theme of the course, has proven to be a more powerful integrating theme than the original planners of the course anticipated and has involved faculty in chemistry, marine biology, environmental policy, oceanography, and geology to name a few. The chemistry section, which used a systems approach to introducing students to the aquatic chemistry of natural systems, is outlined. The graphical methods employed were simple enough that students with no previous chemistry could deal with the complex acid/base and redox systems found in nature. The graphical approach is explained.

Preparation of an environmental impact statement (EIS) is the organizational focus for an undergraduate lab course in environmental chemistry. Students work collaboratively through the semester to prepare an EIS following National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) guidelines. This involves several stages of activity including a scoping process, field sampling, and laboratory analyses, modeling of the results to predict impacts, and report writing. To maximize student interest and make sampling practical, the proposed activity for which the EIS is prepared is locally based. Laboratory analyses are performed using the U.S. EPA's standard methods for turbidity, color, coliforms, nutrients, trace metals, alkalinity, petroleum hydrocarbons, and chlorinated pesticides. The completed EIS is defended in a mock public hearing at which students play assigned roles. In addition to requiring a high degree of group work, this approach emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of environmental chemistry and the difficulty ...

The Education Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the Joint Board/Council ACS Committee on Environmental Improvement (CEI) have complementary roles in facilitating the incorporation of sustainability and green chemistry principles into the chemistry curriculum at multiple levels. The Education Division provides specific products such as the Chemistry in Context textbook, whose new edition features sustainability integrated throughout, and workshops in green chemistry. CEI crafts environmental policy statements for the Society and promotes the incorporation of sustainability into chemical education through joint programming with the Division of Chemical Education and through specifically targeted projects. This communication summarizes one of the invited papers to the ConfChem on Educating the Next Generation: Green and Sustainable Chemistry, held from May 7 to June 30, 2010 and hosted by the ACS DivCHED Committee on Computers in Chemical Education (CCCE).