Environmental Justice: Chemistry in Context for ... - ACS Publications

Chapter 10

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Environmental Justice: Chemistry in Context for Prison Inmates and Non-Majors Emily Metzger and Samantha Glazier* Chemistry Department, St. Lawrence University, 23 Romoda Drive, Canton, New York 13617, United States *E-mail: [email protected].

This course, Environmental Justice, brings together two topics often separated by academic disciplines, chemistry and social justice, and two groups of students usually separated by razor wire, liberal arts students and incarcerated men. Case studies are the backbone of the course. Each case has a principle source and a secondary reading on fundamental social questions. For example, chapters from Rachael Carson’s Silent Spring are paired with Environmental Ethics by Homes Rolston and the movie Erin Brockovich with A Theory of Justice by John Rawls. The case studies let students explore how human activities produce consequences for natural systems and how cultural, economic, and political factors affect environmental policymaking. The teaching methods are a mixture of reading, writing, discussion, and presentation. Using a variety of methods gives students opportunities to play to their strengths and develop new skills, which is critical in a classroom where educational backgrounds and interest in the topic vary.

Introduction Liberal arts colleges are bound as a category of institutes of higher education by shared values about the purpose of an education. These values are articulated in mission statements and curricular objectives. The value of education in correctional facilities is similarly articulated, albeit with different priorities. For example, in Table 1, a few of the goals of St. Lawrence University (SLU) where © 2017 American Chemical Society Kloepper and Crawford; Liberal Arts Strategies for the Chemistry Classroom ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.

I teach chemistry and those of the prison where I taught two courses provide a specific example. The comparison illustrates how both institutions aspire to teach specific skills and develop personal ethics based on respect for others.


Table 1. Sample Objectives and Missions for SLU and the Department of Corrections (DOC) in NY St. Lawrence University Curricular Objectives

Department of Correctional Services Departmental Mission

• A depth of understanding in at least one field of study. • The ability to read, write, speak and listen well. • A personal ethic of considered values and an understanding of diverse cultures. • An understanding of scientific principles and methods and an understanding of the natural environment.

• To provide the inmate with skills or competencies necessary to function successfully in contemporary society. • To enable the inmate to function at the sixth-grade reading and mathematics level. • Teach offenders the need for discipline and respect, and the importance of a mature understanding of a work ethic.

Teaching students how to become contributing members of society is central to both institutions, and the strategies that work for liberal arts students can also work for incarcerated students. What are the principles of the liberal arts that are effective for all students? The SLU catalog says that open and disciplined minds are critical for citizens who can adapt to inevitable change. The key elements to fostering this in ourselves and our students is exposure to basic areas of knowledge, like chemistry, and an ability to use information logically, as well as evaluate alternative points of view. Learning how to think outside the limits of your individual experiences and gain confidence in your ability to evaluate facts is critical. Courses in chemistry take this on in a specific way. Students are asked to recognize patterns in data and use chemical principles to explain, at the molecular level, the reasons for the observed trends. Sometimes the trends conform to their expectations, but other times they must change their thinking. Repeating this exercise develops a habit of mind to be observant and evaluate with an open mind. Mark William Roche in his book Why Choose the Liberal Arts writes (1): Students obtain through the natural sciences a richer comprehension of the world. They learn to observe natural phenomena with a keen and inquisitive eye. They gain an understanding of the universe, its evolution and structure; the fundamental laws and phenomena that underlie both physical and biological systems; the natural history of our planet, solar system, and galaxy; the composition and properties of elemental forms of matter and the principles governing the activities of living systems in relationship to their environments. They learn to apply reason to evidence, to form concepts that relate to experience, and to induce laws 168 Kloepper and Crawford; Liberal Arts Strategies for the Chemistry Classroom ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


from the sequence of phenomena. They develop a hunger for data, and they learn to test their theories against reality and to see beauty and grandeur. In addition, they grasp the ways in which scientific principles and insights help to inform important issues of public policy and human welfare, and they become adept at assessing arguments that are based on scientific claims. While this description is more aspirational than the mission statement of the DOC, we can see how non-science majors at both liberal arts and correctional facilities benefit from being invited to wonder about how the world works at the atomic scale and to think about the relationship between the natural world and society. This is the magic of a liberal arts approach: you get to tap into basic human curiosity and learn how to be a more disciplined, critical thinker. Combined, an educated student remains curious about events in their life and can evaluate and act in creative and truthful ways. Students at SLU are required to fulfill several distribution requirements to meet the University’s learning goals. One learning goal is for students to see how environmental harm and power structures vary with race, income, and education and how diversity in and among groups impacts social structures. To tackle these ideas SLU, like many other liberal arts colleges, requires students to take diversity courses as one of the distribution requirements. The urgency of understanding diversity in society is evident in the divisive national conversations about incarceration, immigration, and racial profiling. Having the capacity for self-reflection and understanding the dynamics of power within and among groups is central to becoming an engaged citizen. Another learning goal at SLU is environmental literacy, which asks that students, “recognize consequences of human activities on natural systems, become aware of the forces that affect environmental policy, and understand natural systems.” International conversations about climate change exemplify the importance of environmental literacy. The diversity and environmental literacy requirements are described as separate learning goals, however, in a course like Environmental Justice, the goals become interdependent. This is a course where a chemistry professor can teach fundamental concepts of chemistry as well as how to value diversity and the environment. In this way, the course highlights how chemistry contributes to the goals of a liberal arts education beyond scientific literacy.

Course Development I teach general chemistry at SLU, a small, liberal arts college in upstate New York, and most of my students plan to major in sciences where general chemistry is a prerequisite. I decided to teach chemistry at a prison to understand the intrinsic value of my discipline beyond being a common preparatory course in college curricula. The prison where I first taught was a super maximum-security prison, and many of the men incarcerated there were serving long sentences. For these prisoners, doing everything possible to prepare for success on the outside was 169 Kloepper and Crawford; Liberal Arts Strategies for the Chemistry Classroom ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


critical, but enrolling in college after release was a long-shot. What would it mean to teach chemistry to a population with little previous education in science and with no opportunity to become a science major or pre-health student? My inspiration for designing a course for incarcerated men and non-majors came from a book called, Riches for the Poor: The Clemente course in the Humanities by Earl Shorris (2). Based on conversations with people who are poor, incarcerated or otherwise viewing society from a distance, he argues that “the poor are excluded from the circle of power; that is from citizenship.” Being a citizen depends on an individual’s ability to think reflectively and act in the public world, where power resides. To support full citizenship, then society must commit “to a dialogue of equals.” History shows that people born into privilege fail to see all people as full citizens. In the case of prison inmates, few people consider those who commit crime as equals, and citizenship is intentionally revoked. For example, incarcerated individuals convicted of a felony lose their right to vote while imprisoned and often after serving their sentence. In addition, the structure of punishment in the US is based on dehumanization, meant to clearly distinguish those who deserve citizenship and those who do not. The Thirteenth Amendment of the US constitution illustrates this point. The Amendment says it is legal to enslave another person if they have been convicted of a crime: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." (section 1) In the context of the goals of a liberal arts education where respect and compassion are valued, how to carry out crime and punishment without dehumanization is critical. Shorris argues that an individual can re-create themselves “through recognition of humanness in the expression of it by art, literature, rhetoric, philosophy, and the unique notion of freedom. At that moment, the isolation of private life ends, and politics begin.” While his perspective is that of a philosopher, I felt chemistry could provide similar opportunities for re-creation. Making all members of society able to exist as equals, in part means all people have access to foundational knowledge of that society. Not knowing that matter is made of atoms and molecules diminishes an individual’s status in society, both in how they are perceived (as not knowing or knowing) and in their personal agency manifested in an ability to understand specific issues like climate change and water quality, policy decisions made by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration, and federal funding for programs like the National Science Foundation and NASA. Shorris’s belief that reflection is critical to gaining access to power is modeled by the critical thinking skills learned in a science class. Scientists collect data and then reflect on the most convincing interpretation. Sometimes their thinking changes, which influences their next steps in the study. This process overlaps well with the ways we all reflect on personal experiences in ways that make our next steps clearer. Designing this course demanded that I constantly ask, “why this particular topic?” I co-designed this first course, Small Molecules, Big Ideas, with senior chemistry major and education minor, Zak Johnson, who has since become a high school chemistry teacher. Mr. Johnson and I decided the topics should highlight fundamental principles of chemistry, include hands-on group activities 170 Kloepper and Crawford; Liberal Arts Strategies for the Chemistry Classroom ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


to engage students, and connect to society. For the topic of nuclear chemistry, students learned about the structure of the atom, detected radioactivity from a smoke alarm, and wrote a creative story about whether they would have worked on the Manhattan Project. For nanoparticles, students learned about energy and entropy as driving forces of chemical process, made food encapsulated microparticles, and wrote an essay about applications in drug-delivery and 3D printing. After teaching this course, I had an opportunity to attend a week of training at the Inside Out Prison Exchange Program (3). The foundation of the program is a curriculum based on criminal justice and issues surrounding incarceration. The model brings college students inside jails and prisons to learn as peers with incarcerated people. The Outside students are expected to model how to be a college student, while the Inside students demonstrate what it means to be incarcerated. The teachers in the program are from the humanities, many with background in criminal justice. I was the first scientist accepted to attend the training. During my interview, I was asked how teaching chemistry could address the core ideas found in the existing criminal justice curriculum. I did not yet have an answer, but I came away from training committed to designing a course that involved social justice. My initial thoughts about a possible course plan came from the movie Erin Brockovich, which I saw as a model case study. The story centers around a poor, uneducated, single mother who smelled something fishy about the paperwork she was filing for a law firm. Following up, she discovered that Cr(VI) was leaking into the water supply of the citizens of Hinkley, CA, from Pacific Gas and Electric. The residents were white, blue collar families, who were unsuspecting when Pacific Gas and Electric claimed that Cr is a natural part of the body and is therefore harmless, suppressing the fact that only Cr(III) is safe. The story is one of power imbalances and the harmful effects of toxic chemicals in the environment, and I hoped to find other topics that would allow me to address similar issues and at the same time teach foundational chemical concepts. Emily Metzger, a chemistry major who planned to become a high-school teacher, joined me in co-designing an environmental justice course for her Senior Year Experience research project. The two of us spent the next few months brainstorming case studies, collecting source material, and developing assignments. Ms. Metzger and I wanted topics of environmental justice that had a positive outcome, such as raised awareness, prompted new policies, or served justice to the responsible parties. As chemists, we sought cases involving chemical hazards. Finally, we prioritized cases where students could get a sense of the people involved. These criteria led to a list of fifteen possible cases from which we selected five with two weeks for each. Since Erin Brockovich set the tone for the idea behind the course, we knew it would be our first topic. We also felt strongly that Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (4) should be included because it launched the modern environmental movement. As senator Ernest Gruening, a democrat from Alaska told Carson when she testified before a Senate subcommittee on pesticides, “Every once in a while, in the history of mankind, a book has appeared which has substantially altered the course of history (5).” Both case studies had women at the forefront, so we began to search for cases in which men played a leading role. During this search, we found the nuclear 171 Kloepper and Crawford; Liberal Arts Strategies for the Chemistry Classroom ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


disaster at Chernobyl that was caused by a series of errors where Anatoly Dyatlov ultimately pushed a risky agenda causing the disaster. The fourth case study was about ozone depletion. Mario Molina, Frank Rowland, and Paul Crutzen were central characters because of their Nobel Prize winning work on the chemistry of ozone. At this point, we had men and women leaders in our cases, we also had issues that effected a small community like in Erin Brockovich and to some degree the Chernobyl disaster, as well as global issues like the ozone layer and pesticides. For the last case study, we settled on the superfund site located on tribal lands of the Akwesasne, which was just a few miles away from the prison and literally hit close to home. The source material, Life and Death in Mohawk Country by Bruce E. Johansen (6), made a compelling case for the inherent power imbalance between the tribe whose land was being polluted and General Motors and ALCOA, the companies ultimately held responsible for polluting the land with polychlorinated biphenyls from their manufacturing plants. Next, Ms. Metzger and I set out to pair each case study with a reading to provide insight into topics like environmental ethics and social justice. Being new to the field of environmental justice, we turned to faculty colleagues in the departments of Anthropology, Philosophy, Rhetoric and Communication Studies, and Sociology for advice on potential readings. With their help, we chose A Theory of Justice by John Rawls (7) to pair with Erin Brockovich; Environmental Ethics by Holmes Rolston III (8) to accompany Silent Spring; The Rhetorical Act (9) by K.K. Campbell to go with images of the Chernobyl disaster; From the Ground Up: Environmental Racism and the Rise of the Environmental Justice Movement (10) by L.W. Cole and S.R. Foster with the Akwesasne superfund site and finally, Tragedy of the Commons (11) by G. Hardin to accompany the ozone hole case study. How to teach and assess the chemistry content was next. Small Molecules, Big Ideas was designed around a selection of key chemical principles, much as topics in general chemistry are selected but with more emphasis on context. In Environmental Justice, the emphasis is on chemistry of the environment and understanding its ethical implications. Chemistry topics are introduced using lecture and readings. For example, I gave one on the structure of the atom as background to understanding the toxicity of Cr(VI) versus Cr(III). Another lecture introduced bonding to help students understand differences in specific pesticides and how they interfere with phosphorylation of ADP to ATP. Some of the readings discuss chemistry. Silent Spring is particularly effective because it is written for a general audience and focuses on the chemistry and biology needed to understand pesticide contamination. Worksheets and writing assignments were used to assess chemical knowledge. Each writing assignment required students to discuss the relevant chemistry. For example, in the assignment for Erin Brockovich, students wrote a letter asking for help from someone like a community activist, attorney, or scientist to address Cr(VI) contamination in their ‘hometown’, (the ‘hometowns’ were based on real cases of Cr(VI) contamination). The assignment required an explanation of why Cr(VI) is toxic and required action. Not unlike other courses designed for non-majors, the students’ backgrounds in chemistry vary in this course. Students may have graduated from low performing high schools or be old enough that high school chemistry was decades 172 Kloepper and Crawford; Liberal Arts Strategies for the Chemistry Classroom ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


ago. Widening the gap of experience is the fact that science majors are drawn to this course, and they bring extensive background. Overall, the differences in backgrounds strengthened the course. While the Outside students generally have more background in chemistry, they have less life experience than the Inside students, who are at the very least older. The Outside students are eager to share their knowledge about chemistry. For the first writing assignment, students peer reviewed each other’s drafts. I heard many Outside students suggest ways to explain the chemistry more thoroughly. During discussions, the Inside students add depth and breadth. This was mentioned in course evaluations repeatedly, for example one Outside student said: “I have learned more about the differences among people and their perspectives in this one course than I probably have in my entire liberal arts education. This class was the first class that I was able to challenge and question an idea or solution to a problem freely without holding up a class or feeling as if I was wasting time by asking questions. Each person within the room came from different backgrounds, experiences, and have developed different life stories that added depth to our conversations that I have not experienced in a class before.” A chemist considering teaching a course like this might wonder what level of chemistry to aim for. This is a personal decision. For me, the goal is that students have genuine interest in the chemistry topics because they learn them in the context of a compelling case study. They genuinely want to know, for instance, how ozone reacts with molecules in the stratosphere to make free radicals, and by extension to learn about radicals and chemical reactions. Increasing their own understanding matters because they understand the human and environmental impacts of ozone destruction. The accompanying Tragedy of the Commons reading prompts discussion of the ethics of shared resources. Sharing resources is part of being a citizen, and students see that how they as individuals treat the environment impacts others. Understanding those impacts depends on understanding the chemistry. For example, we must understand atmospheric chemistry to know how to take action that continues to shrink the ozone hole. In this way, students learn how to become engaged citizens. There are two assessments for the ozone case study. The first is a worksheet about ozone chemistry. The second is a letter written to Milton Bradly that asks the creators of the game Life to update the game to reflect modern values like environmental conservation. Students must propose a change related to ozone and its protection and justify their proposal with ideas from Tragedy of the Commons. For instance, students might ask that players earn a tax credit for riding a bicycle instead of driving a car. The level of chemistry I teach is not comparable to a general chemistry course, but it does expose students to fundamental concepts like atomic structure, molecular bonding and reactions, in a context that makes their significance apparent. Also, students learn how scientists identify and solve problems, which gives students more respect for the scientific process and builds trust in the validity of science. 173 Kloepper and Crawford; Liberal Arts Strategies for the Chemistry Classroom ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


Beyond the chemistry content, Ms. Metzger and I discovered that the diversity of students had a significant impact on the value of the course. Because of the differences in class, race, and age in this setting, we were intentional about finding ways for students to trust each other so that we would be integrated as a learning community. The Outside students – to varying degrees – had anxiety about learning with incarcerated men. The Inside students were concerned about how they would be viewed. At the start of the semester, we met individually with each group of students and discussed concerns. In the first meeting together, the class wrote discussion rules, e.g. don’t speak when someone else is and be respectful of other people’s opinions. Throughout the semester, we did frequent small-group discussions with a mix of Inside and Outside students to help students get to know one another. On the first day of class, Ms. Metzger and I spent time doing ice breakers. The Wagon Wheel activity was the most impactful. In this activity, students sit in two concentric circles with individuals directly across from each other (Inside students sit in the outer circle to avoid the implication that the incarcerated students are being studied). We then asked questions like ‘One of the funniest things that ever happened to me was….’ and ‘The thing I’m most proud of in myself is…’ Students sitting in the outer circle rotated with a new question so that everyone had an opportunity for an exchange. This activity was mentioned in course evaluations and the final reflective essay as putting everyone at ease. One Inside student, who had taken a couple of Inside-Out courses, commented how in other classes the students seemed scared or shy when they were in the room but that, “Not one of the students in this class put out any funny vibes toward me or the rest of the Inside students and this made me feel more comfortable in this setting.” One Outside student commented about his expectations of Inside students, “Going into the first day of class, many of us Outside students were concerned that we were going to have to dominate discussion and that the inside students wouldn’t have much to say.” Another Outside student described the fear she felt, “On the night before the first day, I had a nightmare involving prisoners and a man carrying a man-made knife was chasing me through a prison. The man had killed many of the guards and I was definitely next on his list.” Good teachers strive to create a school community in their classrooms, and it can be extremely difficult to do even with a group of people who have known each other for years and have more commonalities than this class. Making all the students feel as though they were a class of people, citizens, rather than two groups of different types of students with few common ties meant that the class could have open, respectful, meaningful discussions about topics that can be controversial, difficult to talk about, and upsetting in some cases.

Current Version In the first iteration of the Environmental Justice course, the class read and discussed a chapter from Environmental Ethics by J. Rolston that describes a variety of reasons a person might value nature. Students discussed memorable 174 Kloepper and Crawford; Liberal Arts Strategies for the Chemistry Classroom ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


experiences they had in nature and then considered why they valued the experience based on the categories described by Rolston, values such as recreational, character building, aesthetic, and religious. In the first discussion, I was confronted with a personal assumption that likely would have gone undiscovered if the class took place on campus. While I and most of the Outside students had extensive experiences and connection to nature, several of the Inside students struggled to think of any memorable connection. Many had grown up in urban areas like Buffalo and New York City where nature - depending on how you try to define it (12) – existed in subtle, less apparent ways. Living in a prison diminished their interaction with nature further, though not necessarily the impact of their experiences. During the discussion, one Inside student said that when he was uneasy or upset, he would look out his window to the trees to watch them sway for comfort. Discussing nature without making differences in personal experience more explicit could marginalize some students’ because my assumption was that everyone identifies with nature. In the essay assignment based on this discussion, every Inside student did recall an experience that allowed them to explore the value of nature. In fact, because their experiences tended to be rarer and pointed, their reflections had significant depth. One Inside student agreed with Rolston’s claim that “The disappearance of any species represents a great esthetic loss for the entire world.” The student grew up in NYC and reflected on visits to the zoo both as he experienced it as a city kid and now as an incarcerated man. “Humankind has realized in some instances the beauty of nature too late and has destroyed that beauty while simultaneously attempting to admire it. As a child, trips to the zoo were a wonderfully exciting chance to see the animals, feel the fear of their ferocity, and regard with wonder their beauty. Now as an adult having experienced captivity, I do not know that I can enjoy that experience again. We have destroyed these animals’ natural environments, depleted their populations, then confined them to small areas in order to ‘protect the survival of their species’ all the while visiting and gawking at their lethargic new lives.” The connection that he makes between humans destroying habitat and then responding by caging animals in zoos is the same connection poverty and racism have with incarceration (13). In general, the Outside students used experiences that reflected the recreational and aesthetic values of nature. One Outside student described a night with the Hadzabe tribe of Tanzania during his study abroad: “As night passed and morning came, the sun slowly peaked over the ridge, kissing the green valley and waking the wildlife and myself from sleep…. We went on hunts using bow and arrows made from trees, animal tendons, and skin and rocks arrow tips, some with poison for larger game. I learned what it is like to depend on the world for the gifts it has and the beauty it holds.” 175 Kloepper and Crawford; Liberal Arts Strategies for the Chemistry Classroom ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


This experience in nature is one of admiration and connection. This example does not challenge the concept of nature like the previous example. My goal for the next iteration of the course therefore was to look at how these two experiences coexist. My University’s decision to rewrite our general education requirements prompted me to modify the course to not just expose students to diversity but also to reflect on how their views on the environment and justice depend on their social location. One of the most significant changes to the general education requirements was to the diversity requirement, which now emphasized reflection on social location (c) in addition to understanding the significance and inherent power structures (a, b). a. b. c.

an understanding of the nature and significance of diversity within and among groups; and an understanding of the dynamics of power and justice within and/or among groups or societies; and a capacity for critical self-reflection on social location, including how social location shapes human interactions.

Existing assignments fulfilled the first two requirements. For example, one of the assignments for the superfund site that affected the Akwesasne tribe was a group presentation that had students critique other superfund sites. They considered whether race and class were part of the story as it was in a reading about Kettleman City, CA, where memos were found that showed the company specifically targeted black and brown communities to dump environmental waste. Some of the question prompts for the presentation were: • • • •

What are the demographics of the people affected? Who did the polluting? Did they contribute to the clean-up? Who discovered the contamination? Are there any similarities to the Superfund site near the Akwesasne tribe? The Kettleman City story?

Seeing how less powerful members of society are disproportionally affected by environmental contamination gives students a concrete reason to think about power dynamics and justice. The third requirement (c. above) calls for reflection by students on their own social location. This is where I saw the most potential for making diversity more explicit. An existing assignment based on the readings from Silent Spring (author is a white educated female biologist) that recognizes individuals will experience the natural world differently depending on their personal experience. The prompt is below: Does nature have intrinsic value? Answer this by reflecting on your personal experience(s) with nature. The environmental ethics reading categorizes several different ways nature carries value for humans. Discuss which of the values resonate with your experience(s) with the 176 Kloepper and Crawford; Liberal Arts Strategies for the Chemistry Classroom ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.

natural world and discuss which of the values you think Rachael Carson might use to explain her relationship with the natural world. In the revised course, the class discussed social location prompted by the following three questions: 1.


2. 3.

Read out the old DIV-13 (Diversity Requirement) definition and the new one and then ask: What is social location? How does social location influence, enhance, or limit our ways of thinking about the world. Why do you think the university made this a requirement? What are some advantages of being more aware of and articulate about our own social locations? What are the dangers or problems associated with not being aware of our social location?

The discussion took place on the first day of class and set a tone that everyone’s voice was distinct and mattered. This is especially powerful teaching inside a prison where dehumanization of inmates is normalized. In the first and second case studies, Erin Brockovich and Rachael Carson were viewed as protectors of the environment motivated by their own individual values and life experiences. Brockovich had a strong innate sense of right and wrong. As she describes herself in the movie, “I don’t know shit about shit, but I know the difference between right and wrong.” This, combined with her work ethic, helped her uncover information crucial to the case. The case was settled in 1996 for $333 million, the largest settlement ever paid in a direct-action lawsuit in U.S. history. It also had legislative impact. Proposition 65, amended in 2012, removed chromium from the list of chemicals that present no significant risk of cancer by the route of ingestion. Rachel Carson was a trained biologist and gifted writer, which combined to make writing a book about pesticides for a general audience an ideal avenue for defining the environmental movement. Besides being female and passionate, the social locations of these two women differed in class, education, and family structure. These differences directly shaped their individual brand of activism. The second addition to the course was a comparative reading assignment. For this new assignment, students read two pairs of poems written by White and African American nature poets. First Pair: The Haunted Oak by Paul Laurence Dunbar and The Tree by Joyce Kilmer Second Pair: The beginning of the end of the world by Lucille Clifton and The arrival of the bee box by Sylvia Plath The reading assignment was given with a piece of advice from Sarah Barber, a colleague who teaches poetry and suggested the assignment: “Since poems are brief, each word in a poem carries a heavy burden, look up words you don’t know. Read slowly and multiple times to get the fullest sense of your reaction to the poem emotionally--that’s where you’ll start to find its message.” 177 Kloepper and Crawford; Liberal Arts Strategies for the Chemistry Classroom ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.

We began the discussion in class by asking one or two students to read the poem. Next, we went around the room and each person said a word about their emotion. This was enough to make people feel comfortable talking about poetry even though we as a group had little background. In the first pair of poems, the subject is the same, trees. The viewpoint of the authors however could not be more different. Dunbar’s poem is a one of praise for the tree’s feminine beauty created by God:


“A tree that looks at God all day, And lifts her leafy arms to pray; “ Kilmer’s poem is one of grief felt by an oak tree where an African American man was lynched. “And never more shall leaves come forth On the bough that bears the ban; I am burned with dread, I am dried and dead, From the curse of a guiltless man.” The poems were both written by in the early part of the 20th Century. Social location, however, deeply affected the ideas evoked by a tree. After discussing the second pair of poems, students were asked to read Lament for Dark Peoples by Langston Hughes and write the author about a time they felt excluded from nature. As a chemistry professor, I never expected to lead a discussion about topics like those raised by these poems. Using a science class to reach into the depths of the human experience inspires me. The timing worked well for this assignment, coming just after Silent Spring, students’ awareness about the value of caring for nature was elevated. In the poem by Clifton, the reader is asked whether to consider cockroaches as part of nature. Even though cockroaches give most people the “heebie-jeebies” as several students used as their emotion, they are living creatures. Instead of pleading for their lives when a human attempted to drown the cockroaches in the kitchen sink, “they seemed to bow their sad head for us not at us.” Some found the characterization of cockroaches as pitying humans unsettling. Reading Silent Spring made the idea of using insecticides troubling because of the risk to the environment and forced us to question why humans are so desperate to kill cockroaches. Our hope was that teaching a chemistry course that made space for exploring questions of social justice would be a meaningful experience for both us and the students. Teaching this material in a prison, the very physical space in which our justice system places those that commit some types of crime, demands that students be presented with the real impact of how society conceptualizes and enacts justice, be it criminal or environmental.

178 Kloepper and Crawford; Liberal Arts Strategies for the Chemistry Classroom ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


Outcomes Assessing a course is a complex endeavor involving course evaluations and personal reflection. Because course evaluations are familiar to all teachers, I will highlight a few outcomes from the Environmental Justice course evaluations. The course evaluation forms ask students for numerical and written responses to comments. To the question, Taking this course has been a valuable educational experience, 68% of students strongly agreed (the other 32% agreed) compared to a university average of 39% strongly agreeing. To the question, I would recommend this course to another student, 74% strongly agreed compared to the university average of 40%. The numeric evaluations support my own assessment that the course was engaging to a broad group of students. Student written comments can help us to understand the reasons for their numerical evaluations. The most striking result in this course was how closely students’ comments matched the goals of the course. They expressed appreciation for the topic of environmental justice. As one student expressed, “This class has helped my learning by giving me a deeper understanding of chemistry and how different chemicals, along with the behavior of mankind, affects our lives and environment we live in.” Appreciation for the diversity in the classroom was common. One student observed, “Being in this diverse class really helped getting so many different perspective on what everyone is thinking from their personal background.” Assignment design was crucial because the students came with different skills, interests, and confidence levels. Also, the content integrates topics from chemistry, history, philosophy, and sociology, and assignment types needed to address several types of knowledge. Students appreciated being assessed in a variety of ways. As one student said, “I initially felt uncomfortable with my level of knowledge on chemistry, but the classroom environment allowed for an engaging discussion, open questions, and group learning.” The last assignment in the course was a reflection essay. What they chose to write about also shows how closely their most prominent experiences matched the course goals. Ms. Metzger and I chose case studies with positive outcomes to avoid overwhelming students new to the topic of environmental justice. One student majoring in environmental studies said this: “I am truly pleased about the material chosen in this course and how it was presented; this kind of reading, traditionally, can be incredibly depressing and dark, and has the proclivity to either inspire you to take action or 179 Kloepper and Crawford; Liberal Arts Strategies for the Chemistry Classroom ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.

frustrate you to the point of inaction. I cannot speak for all students, but for me at least, it has done the former. By choosing case studies that have positive outlooks and possible resolutions was incredibly powerful, allowing for meaningful discussion.”


Group work was emphasized so that students could benefit from each other’s knowledge and life experiences. From an Inside student, “I worry sometimes how I will fit in society after 13 years in prison, Dr. Glazier and St. Lawrence University students have shown me that if I work hard, fitting in and being productive is an attainable goal.” From an Outside student, “I was able to gain new perspectives on the topics discussed. Group discussions were my favorite aspect of the class because this allowed all the classmates to really talk about what they were thinking. It was so refreshing to see the different students interact in a way that was not judgmental and really accepting towards all the students.” Returning to what it means to be liberally educated, the overarching goal is to prepare our students for citizenship. Students were changed in diverse ways by this course. One Outside student said, “This class embodies what we, as Saints (14) believe in. It was a class that challenged us both in the classroom but also as humans…Everything was so diverse and everyone had something to contribute and add to the discussion…I feel we all grew up by ditching stereotypes, dropping everything and seeing each other as equals. This brought so much discussion and respect in the classroom that allowed everyone to speak freely and really engage in everything that we did! There were some days where I just sat and listened because I don’t think I have ever been in a class where we have gone so deep in the topics and the principles of life and drawing on so many experiences and backgrounds.” Two Inside student had this to say, “An important fact I learned in this course is that knowledge creates transition and power. These people stood up for what was a just cause they did not just settle for the bureaucracy b. s.” “This course has given me the confidence to pursue my education when I go home. I actually am seriously considering a teaching career so maybe someday I can come back to facilities like I am in now and pay this forward. There are so many able men behind these walls that just need exposure to positive learning environments.”



Summary This course is an example of how a science course can be taught with goals that reach into several aspects of a liberal education. For both the Inside and Outside students, my wish is that the course will prepare them to become contributing members of society. It is designed to expose non-majors to environmental literacy, principles of citizenship, and diversity. The inclusion of chemical topics builds students’ confidence in their ability to learn science now and in the future. The writing assignments taught students how to integrate personal experiences and multiple readings into cogent essays with a point of view. The discussion and presentation assignments prepare students to be able to discuss their ideas with others, appreciate many points of view, respect difference, and problem solve. A summary of the readings and types of assignments are summarized in Table 2. Assignment details are available upon request. Working with two education majors had many positive impacts on course design. My two students served as trouble-shooting partners, developed assignments, and graded assessments. Co-teaching in this way makes implementation of a complex course easier and more fun, as well as giving them additional teaching experience as they head into the job market. The students attracted to this course are grateful for the experience because the course design aligns with core values. For the Outside students, being curious and enthusiastic about unique experiences are core values. The inconvenience of being off campus, up to a couple of hours of travel time alone, is enough to deter many. The students that do enroll are dedicated. They may enroll because they are curious about chemistry, a nontraditional classroom, or the nature of the prison system. Their curiosity and openness brings them to the course, and, in turn, their inquisitive nature brings out the best in the course. The Inside students who choose to participate in college courses standout from their peers too. They are exceptionally dedicated to making positive changes in their life. They step outside of their comfort zone to learn unfamiliar material with people that seem, at first, very different. The courses give them applicable skills and knowledge to use once they serve their sentences, as well as redefining their identity to include college student. Education and vocational training are the only two factors that have positive correlations with decreased recidivism rates (15). The men in our course know these statistics and look to learn and get involved so they can better themselves and the society they will one day be ready to rejoin. Finally, a note about creating a non-traditional classroom for liberal arts students. Teaching a course inside a prison may not be feasible or of interest to professors excited about the topic of environmental justice. There are other ways to include diverse perspectives, which sets this course apart. For example, we have a group called SOAR in my community that creates educational programming for retirees. Military or veteran groups are also abundant and would be another way to diversify the classroom. Additionally, technology may be employed to bring groups together virtually. In any of these variations, the primary goal remains to teach a course where students learn to trust science, engage with diversity, and give voice to their ideas. 181 Kloepper and Crawford; Liberal Arts Strategies for the Chemistry Classroom ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.

Meetings

Supplementary Reading Title

Case Study

Topic(s)

0

Separate meetings for Inside and Outside students

Orientation

-

1

Icebreakers and introductions

Syllabus and diversity requirement

-

Erin Brockovich

Carcinogenic CrVI

A Theory of Justice

2-4

5-8

9

Assignments

2 worksheets, essay Silent Spring

Pesticides

Environmental Ethics worksheet, group presentation, essay

182


Table 2. Summary of Readings and Assignments from Spring Semester of 2017

Nature Poetry

Nature and social location

The Haunted Oak & The Tree; The beginning of the end of the world & The arrival of the bee box; Lament for Dark Peoples 2 response papers

10-11

12-13

14-15

North Dakota Access Pipeline

Oil pipelines

From the Ground Up 2 group presentations

Ozone

Atmospheric chemistry

Tradgey of the Commons worksheet, essay

Group Project

Various

Various poster presentation

Kloepper and Crawford; Liberal Arts Strategies for the Chemistry Classroom ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.

References 1. 2. 3.


4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

11. 12.

13. 14. 15.

Roche, M. W. Why Choose the Liberal Arts?; University of Notre Dame Press: Notre Dame, IN, 2010; pp 17−18. Shorris, E. Riches for the Poor: The Clemente course in the humanities; W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.: New York, 1997; pp 99−100. About the Inside Out Prison Exchange Program. URL http://www.insideoutcenter.org/ (3/31/17). Carson, R. Silent Spring; Houghton Mifflin Co.: Boston, MA, 1962. Griswold, E. How ‘Silent Spring’ Ignited the Environmental Movement; New York Times. (9/21/2012). Johansen, B. E. Life and Death in Mohawk Country; Fulcrum Publishing: Golden, CO, 1993; pp xxi-xxxi; 1−19. Rawls, J. A Theory of Justice; Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA, 1971; pp 3−24. Rolston, H., III Environmental Ethics; Temple University Press: Philadelphia, PA, 1988; pp 1−32. Campbell, K. K. The Rhetorical Act; Wadsworth Publishing Company: Belmont, CA, 2002; pp 3−17. Cole, L. W., Foster, S. R. From the Ground Up: Environmental Racism and the Rise of the Environmental Justice Movement; NYU Press: New York, 2000; pp 1−18. Hardin, G. Tragedy of the Commons. Science. 1968, 162, 1243–1248. During the discussion, a student asked what is nature and after many attempts to answer, we all felt less certain about what nature is exactly. An Inside student suggested we read a definition from the dictionary. Resources are limited in a prison classroom, but dictionaries are readily available. This copy of Miriam Webster’s dictionary defines nature as “the external world in its entirety.” Suffice it to say we concluded that we were going to have to settle for a working definition that would be unique to individuals based on their individual experiences. Alexander, M. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness; The New Press: New York, 2010. Saints is a way of referring to St. Lawrence University students. Davis, L. M. “Education and Vocational Training in Prisons Reduces Recidivism, Improves Job Outlook.” Rand Corporation. Aug. 22, 2013. URL http://www.rand.org/news/press/2013/08/22.html (8/3/17).


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