Integrating the Molecular Basis of Sustainability into General Chemistry through Systems Thinking (original) (raw)
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Journal of Chemical Education, 2019
We report here a teacher action research project in which a Systems Thinking approach was implemented into a 15 h Depth Study for students in their final year of secondary chemistry. Students were introduced to the concept of Systems Thinking and the use of systems maps, along with the United Nations Global Goals for Sustainable Development (SDGs). Integrating these ideas, students created their own systems maps for specific chemical processes. Specifically, they represented their chemistry curriculum content knowledge in the context of the SDGs, by considering whether the impact of each aspect of the chemical process is positive, negative, or neutral for each SDG. The purpose of the approach was to give students the opportunity to situate their knowledge of sustainability in the context of the sourcing, uses, and other intended and unintended consequences of a variety of chemical processes, and how these processes impact the wider global community. The teacher action research was conducted through the development and testing of the teaching materials as part of an iterative cycle of improvement. The teaching and assessment approach was evaluated utilizing reflections of the teacher in an action research cycle. The project is described in the context of how Systems Thinking influenced the inclusion of sustainability as a cross-curriculum priority in Australia. This report gives secondary teachers tools to implement Systems Thinking in their own classrooms in a way that integrates it within the chemistry curriculum without requiring additional time or resources.
Sustainability, 2019
The current research on systems thinking criticizes the additive nature of green chemistry (GC) not being supportive of systems thinking to achieve holism in its practices. This paper argues that systems thinking should comprise of the social issues, and, therefore, it studies renowned papers by GC pioneers and reviews on the field regarding how they address the social dimension of sustainability. It points out how GC has ignored social sustainability in its discourses, practices, and evaluations, leading to a reductionist interpretation of sustainability. Then, this paper presents some challenges to be overcome in order to achieve balanced sustainability. A systemic chemical thinking is advocated, considering chemistry in culture and chemistry as culture, expanding the chemistry rationality from ontological and technological dimensions into the epistemological and ethical ones. It is then discussed how chemistry education can help to promote sustainability in a broad and systemic way.
Integrating Sustainability into Learning in Chemistry
Journal of Chemical Education
Earth Day 2021, with the theme of "Restore Our Earth", along with Chemists Celebrate Earth Week 2021 from ACS with the theme "Reducing Our Footprint with Chemistry", provides a rich opportunity to reflect on the extent to which we integrate sustainability into chemistry education. Chemistry plays a central interdisciplinary role among all the sciences. It provides the essential key to understanding chemical processes and products operating within and among physical, biological, ecological, and engineered systems with far-reaching impacts on the health and well-being of people and our planet. Capitalizing on this pivotal role requires interchanges of knowledge among all these disciplines as well as the social sciences, humanities, and the arts, so that we can tease out the specific knowledge relevant to sustainability in the chemistry curriculum. This editorial highlights how the interdisciplinary work of integrating sustainability into chemistry education can be guided by systems thinking, and by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Planetary Boundaries frameworks. Such systematic approaches can energize educators and learners to situate chemistry within a broader landscape of knowledge and thus tap chemistry's potential to enhance sustainability.
Journal of Physics: Conference Series , 2020
Education must be able to connect technology advances, the industry and learning in the classroom. These include advances in the fields of chemistry and chemical education to teach students to be able to contribute to solving problems and sustainable development in the future. Chemical education has the main role in education for sustainable development. For this reason, we need a concept in a chemical education curriculum that can support sustainability. System thinking in chemistry education is relevant to sustainability. Through system thinking, students are challenged to holistically understand the scientific process. This study aims to review the literature on systems thinking and sustainability in chemical education. A total of 9 articles from reputed international journals were the main sources for review. The results of the literature study conducted were the implementation of the system thinking in a chemical education curriculum was a potential thing. The relationship between sustainability and systems thinking were discussed.
Systems Thinking and Sustainability
Chemistry International, 2021
A 3-year IUPAC project Systems Thinking in Chemistry for Sustainability: Toward 2030 and Beyond (STCS 2030+, IUPAC Project #2020-014-3-050) [1] launched in late 2020 is breaking important new ground in addressing chemistry’s orientations, roles, and responsibilities in the 21st Century and helping to map out implications for chemistry education, research, and practice. In taking on this ambitious task, STCS 2030+ draws on expertise available within IUPAC’s own structures, as a project co-sponsored by three IUPAC standing committees: the Committee on Chemistry Education (CCE), the Committee on Chemistry and Industry (COCI) and the Interdivisional Committee on Green Chemistry for Sustainable Development (ICGCSD). The project is also working with other organizations, such as the International Organization for Chemical Sciences in Development (IOCD), which is a co-supporter, and involves collaborators with individuals from organizations that include the Stockholm Resilience Centre [2], ...
Sustainability has a molecular basis that suggests a central role for chemistry in addressing today’s challenges to Earth and societal systems, and this role requires educators to see chemical reactions and processes as integral parts of dynamic and interconnected systems. Despite this prospect, few accessible resources are available for students and educators to facilitate systems thinking in chemistry for sustainability. We have developed an interactive digital learning tool (https://planetaryboundaries.kcvs.ca) based on the Planetary Boundaries sustainability framework, that uses interactive visualizations to help users better understand Earth system sustainability challenges and helps chemists and educators connect substances, reactions, and chemistry concepts to sustainability science. The tool highlights the fundamental role that chemistry plays in regulating the individual biophysical Earth system processes and in determining their control variables. It incorporates key featu...
Future Directions for Systems Thinking in Chemistry Education: Putting the Pieces Together
Journal of Chemical Education
The International Union of Pure & Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) launched a global project in 2017 to infuse systems thinking into chemistry education, motivated in part by the desire to help equip chemists and citizens to better address the complex, global challenges our society currently faces. One important early outcome of the IUPAC Systems Thinking in Chemistry Education (STICE) project is this special issue of the Journal of Chemical Education, which provides a key reference point for the rapidly emerging literature on the incorporation of systems thinking into chemistry education, including its application to green and sustainable chemistry. The STICE project outcomes to date include reviewing systems thinking approaches in other STEM fields, articulating a framework for STICE, identifying aspects of learning theories relevant to learning systems thinking skills in chemistry, using systems thinking approaches to integrate green and sustainability chemistry concepts into university-level chemistry classrooms, and identifying considerations for assessing systems thinking in chemistry education. The authors of this article, who, with others, have provided leadership to the STICE project, conclude this Journal's special issue by briefly reviewing progress to date and identifying three main areas of future work for the application of systems thinking in chemistry education: (1) developing systems thinking resources for chemistry educators and students, (2) identifying chemistry education research needed to investigate and improve systems thinking approaches, and (3) investigating opportunities to apply chemistry-related systems thinking approaches in broader educational contexts. Our intention is to recommend potential opportunities, stimulate conversations, and motivate actions required to successfully equip learners with systems thinking skills in chemistry, such that these learners, citizens of our countries and our planet, are better positioned to interpret and address complex global challenges.
Introduction to Systems Thinking for the Chemistry Education Community
Journal of Chemical Education, 2019
Within recent history, both science research and science education have been largely reductionist in perspective. While the reductionist approach has resulted in a significant increase in our knowledge of the natural world and in great technological advances, it is not sufficient for addressing global world challenges, such as sustainability, pollution, climate change, and poverty. We, as members of the Systems Thinking in Chemistry Education (STICE) project, argue that for science in general, and chemistry in specific, to continue to advance and for citizens to be prepared to participate knowledgeably and democratically in science-related policy decisions, the reductionist approaches that are commonly used in chemistry research and chemistry education must be complemented with a more holistic approach. Systems thinking is such an approach. This article discusses the historical development, describes the key characteristics, and presents some skills and competencies associated with systems thinking. Our intention is to provide chemical educators with enough basic information about systems thinking that they can consider why and how such an approach might be applied in the education of both future chemists and future global citizens.
Journal of Chemical Education, 2021
The purpose of this paper is to discuss ways that a chemistry course could reposition itself by adopting interdisciplinary approaches based on systems thinking and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as overarching frameworks, to give an overview of several challenges that chemistry in higher education is facing, and to discuss how those can be addressed as a result of this repositioning. We will be discussing the need for a new type of scientist, one who has a deep understanding of their own discipline but also an overview of the links with other disciplines and is equipped with skills that will help them contribute to the solutions of a very complex system: the human–environment interaction system. Chemists should be part of what is described by earth systems’ science as “the new social contract” between science and society. Finally, we will explore how this can be reflected in the curricula of higher education, and we will present a University of Bristol educational initiati...
International Journal for Cross-Disciplinary Subjects in Education, 2023
The laudable intent of science and industrialization for the ease, long life and comfort of humans has resulted in degradation of the ecosystem as pollutants from chemical production and their use end up in the ecosystem and exert detrimental effects on systems. This damaging effect has translated into climate change, food crisis, financial crisis, poverty, water scarcity, poor health, war, injustice, migration and urbanization, and other humanitarian challenges. A sustainable and humanitarian solution must be found to mitigate the existing and subsequent challenges. A possible solution could be through the development of sustainability-and humanitarianliterate citizens through chemical education. To explore this possibility, 31 preservice graduate teachers were engaged in a case study where they developed solutions to real life environmental challenges in a safe, fun-filled environment, with simple, cost-effective equipment from a system thinking stance. Data was gathered through questionnaire, inter-rated observation schedule, semi-structured interviews and lab reports. Findings indicated that it was feasible to embed sustainability and humanitarian principles through a system thinking approach to inculcate into preservice teachers the need to protect our ecosystem for posterity through chemical studies.