Communication pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
ConfChem Conference on Educating the Next Generation: Green and Sustainable ChemistrySolar Energy: A Chemistry Course on Sustainability for General Science Education and Quantitative Reasoning Scott D. Cummings* Department of Chemistry, Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio 43022, United States S Supporting Information *
ABSTRACT: As one approach to incorporating sustainability topics into the chemistry curriculum, a liberal arts course on the chemistry of solar energy is described. This communication summarizes one of the invited papers to the ConfChem online conference 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).
KEYWORDS: First-Year Undergraduate/General, Curriculum, Environmental Chemistry, Problem Solving/Decision Making, Applications of Chemistry, Green Chemistry, Nonmajor Courses, Photochemistry
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sustainability topics into the chemistry curriculum poses many challenges, but several approaches exist: developing new instructional units and laboratory experiments; designing new coursesfor nonmajors, within the core curriculum for chemistry majors, or as upper-level electivesthat address one or more aspects of sustainability; or building entire new programs and degree paths in sustainability.8 As one example, sustainability issues have become a central part of the 7th edition of the ACS textbook Chemistry in Context.9 One aspect of sustainability that has received valuable and substantial attention is “green chemistry”, the principles and examples of which have been incorporated into several textbooks.10 Ultimately, our discipline’s contribution to sustainability will be far more than just green chemistry. Chemistry will be central to developing clean energy systems; to designing advanced materials for improving energy efficiency, made from renewable feedstocks and able to be recycled; to inventing new ways of detecting and removing pollutants from water, air, and soil; to designing new approaches for sustainable agriculture and biofuels; and to creating new diagnostics and treatments for a sustainable health care system. Many of these topics already have a natural overlap with much of the undergraduate chemistry curriculum.11 Sustainability has been defined in different ways, but I find the description “learning to live off the sun in real time”
or many decades, chemistry educators have discussed how to teach chemistry effectively, with valuable insights recorded in the pages of this Journal. The set of daunting challenges and potential solutions described by the term “sustainability” begs chemists to explore an even more important question: why teach chemistry? Chemistry already plays a central role in many aspects of sustainability:1 with problems of continued dependence on fossil fuels and with the promise of new types of renewable energy systems; with the production of toxins that pollute our water, soil, and air and with new technologies for detecting and remediating pollutants in the environment; with wasteful and resource-depleting manufacturing and with the design of recyclable materials; and “green chemistry” processes. A rapidly emerging green sensibility is transforming business,2 policy, the marketplace,3 and some aspects of higher education.4,5 Amidst this sea of change, are chemistry educators ready to chart a new course? The first part of the paper “Solar Energy: A Chemistry Course on Sustainability for General Science Education and Quantitative Reasoning” presents a case for why sustainability should be brought into the core chemistry curriculum. Chemists are beginning to align chemistry education with a rising interest in sustainability among our students and with the new direction for chemistry research and industry.6 A compelling essay promoting sustainability in chemistry education has appeared in this Journal.7 Incorporating © 2013 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.
Published: January 14, 2013 523
dx.doi.org/10.1021/ed200589u | J. Chem. Educ. 2013, 90, 523−524
Journal of Chemical Education
Communication
Academic programs in many chemistry departments are tailored to students preparing for post-graduate degree programs in the molecular sciences or for careers in the health professions. Without a doubt, the health professions and the chemical industries will be transformed by sustainability efforts, but chemistry educators should consider building a chemistry curriculum that also supports students’ growing interests in sustainability topics. Chemistry departments can play a central role in building a sustainability curriculum that, in ways similar to the current pre-med curriculum, attracts students into science and prepares them for careers in a green jobs economy. This paper was discussed from June 18 to June 24 during the spring 2010 ConfChem online conference, Educating the Next Generation: Green and Sustainable Chemistry. ConfChem conferences are hosted by the ACS DivCHED Committee on Computers in Chemical Education (CCCE), are open to the public and can be accessed at the CCCE Web site, http://www. ccce.divched.org/.
particularly effective in drawing students into the chemical science underlying these challenges.12 The second part of the paper describes one approach to bringing some aspects of sustainability into the chemistry curriculum: through the chemistry course, Solar Energy, which has been completed by nearly 400 liberal arts students at Kenyon College. This course satisfies graduation requirements in quantitative reasoning (QR) and as an option for a natural sciences sequence. It also serves as the main option for a chemistry course for our environmental studies minor. The Solar Energy course explores the chemistry of fossil fuels and alternatives such as solar electricity and solar fuels. Students learn chemical principles of reaction stoichiometry, molecular structure, thermochemistry, catalysis, energy quantization, and electrochemistry in the context of investigating solar radiation, combustion, greenhouse gases, ethanol, photovoltaics, water electrolysis, fuel cells, hydrogen storage, and batteries. The course design emphasizes (i) depth in students’ engagement with chemistry concepts related to the challenges of continued dependence on fossil fuels and the potential for renewable energy systems; (ii) the use of quantitative reasoning to solve problems and critical thinking to evaluate claims; and (iii) interdisciplinary connections with economics, politics, ecology and human health. Readings are drawn from Chemistry in Context,9 as well as general books such as David Goodstein’s Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil13 and Travis Bradford’s Solar Revolution: The Economic Transformation of the Global Energy Industry.14 Quantitative-reasoning and critical-thinking skills are exercised using problem solving and discussion of questions, such as: “What land area would we need to produce all U.S. electricity using photovoltaics? How long is the energy payback time for a photovoltaic system? Which is a better deal, E85 costing $2.69/gallon or gasoline costing $2.99/gallon? How much ethanol would we need to replace oil imports? Does hydrogen require more energy to make than it provides as a fuel? What factors limit the efficiency of a photovoltaic? Significant gains in students’ quantitative reasoning skills and understanding of basic energy science (e.g., that batteries are not primary sources of energy, that total energy is conserved, and heat-to-work conversion efficiency is limited by nature, that color of light relates to its energy, and that the absorption of light by a substance relates to its electronic structure) have been found through pre- and post-course examination questions. These chemistry topics also present interesting opportunities to build interdisciplinary connections: with economics (How does the financial payback time for a photovoltaic (PV) system relate to its energy payback time? How have the sharp swings in the price of oil affected global production? Which aspects of current fuel cell design may prevent significant cost reduction?); with politics and policy (Should solar and wind be subsidized? Which nations hold the vast quantity of remaining oil reserves?); with ecology (How much CO2 could feasibly be captured and sequestered, and how? Would leaked H2 affect the atmosphere? How would scaling biofuel production affect topsoil and water quality?); and with human health (How could PV/battery-powered LED lamps replace the use of toxic and dangerous oil lamps in parts of the developing world? Could off-grid hydrogen fuel production be used to power a refrigerator to maintain vaccine supplies in remote villages? What are the costs of continued fossil fuel dependence to the U.S. healthcare system?).
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ASSOCIATED CONTENT
* Supporting Information S
The revised ConfChem paper. This material is available via the Internet at http://pubs.acs.org.
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AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*E-mail:
[email protected]. Notes
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
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REFERENCES
(1) Collins, T. Essays on Science and Society: Toward Sustainable Chemistry. Science 2001, 291 (5501), 48−49. (2) The Clean Energy Economy: Repowering Jobs, Business and Investment Across America; The Pew Charitable Trusts: Washington, DC, 2009. http://www.pewenvironment.org/uploadedFiles/PEG/ Publications/Report/Clean%20Energy%20Economy.pdf (accessed Jan 2012). (3) Ritter, S. The ’Sus’ Word Chem. Eng. News 2010, 88 (15), 39. (4) Sustainability on Campus: Stories and Strategies for Change; Barlett, P., Chase, G. W., Eds.; MIT Press: Cambridge, MA, 2004. (5) Sherman, D. J. Sustainability: What’s the Big Idea? Sustainability: The Journal of Record 2008, 1 (3), 188−195. (6) ACS: Chemistry and Sustainability. http://acswebcontent.acs. org/sustainability/index.html (accessed Nov 2012). (7) Kirchhoff, M. M. Education for a Sustainable Future. J. Chem. Educ. 2010, 87 (2), 121. (8) Sustainability in the Chemistry Curriculum; Middlecamp, C. H., Jorgenson, A. D., Eds.; ACS Symposium Series 1087; Washington, DC: American Chemical Society, 2011. (9) Chemistry in Context: Applying Chemistry to Society, 7th ed.; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2012. (10) Braun, B.; Charney, R.; Clarens, A.; Farrugia, J.; Kitchens, C.; Lisowski, C.; Naistat, D.; O’Neil, A. Completing Our Education. Green Chemistry in the Curriculum. J. Chem. Educ. 2006, 83, 1126− 28. (11) Moore, J. W. Energy. J. Chem. Educ. 2008, 85, 891. (12) Baum, R. Learning To Live off the Sun in Real Time. Chem. Eng. News 2008, 86 (33), 42−46. (13) Goodstein, D. Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil; W.W. Norton & Co. : New York, 2004. (14) Bradford, T. Solar Revolution: The Economic Transformation of the Global Energy Industry; MIT Press: Cambridge, MA, 2006.
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