Article pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
Green Chemistry and Sustainability: An Undergraduate Course for Science and Nonscience Majors Erin M. Gross* Department of Chemistry, Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska 68178, United States S Supporting Information *
ABSTRACT: An undergraduate lecture course in Green Chemistry and Sustainability has been developed and taught to a “multidisciplinary” group of science and nonscience majors. The course introduced students to the topics of green chemistry and sustainability and also immersed them in usage of the scientific literature. Through literature presentations, the students also learned how to effectively communicate scientific concepts, data, and ideas. The course culminated in written and oral group research proposals. The course was taught in the Honors Program at Creighton University and has been well received by students.
KEYWORDS: Second-Year Undergraduate, Upper-Division Undergraduate, Curriculum, Environmental Chemistry, Interdisciplinary/Multidisciplinary, Communication/Writing, Green Chemistry, Nonmajor Courses
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ince the inception of green chemistry in the 1990s,1 it has found its way into curriculum via laboratory experiments,2 infusion into lecture material,3 and development into lecture courses for science majors.4 A new lecture course on green chemistry was developed for the Honors Program5 at Creighton University. The honors students were at the second-year or upper level and from a variety of disciplines and majors, so the course was designed with a multidisciplinary approach and titled Green Chemistry and Sustainability. In the two semesters that the course has been taught, it has attracted roughly two-thirds science and onethird nonscience majors from the Honors Program. This 3-credit hour lecture course has been taught in both Monday, Wednesday, Friday (50 min lectures) format and Tuesday, Thursday (75 min lectures) format. The course learning objectives were for students to: • Learn some fundamental concepts of chemistry and how they are applied to green chemistry. • Appreciate how science, especially chemistry, is linked to the fate of the earth. • Communicate scientific principles, policies, and proposed ideas to a general and scientific audience. • Appreciate how human actions or inactions affect the earth and its inhabitants. • Become proficient at reading, interpreting, and making critical judgments about topics in the scientific literature. • Develop the technical and writing skills needed to write a research proposal.
(ii) pollution and waste prevention, and (iii) safety. This categorization (Table 1) determined the organization and timeline Table 1. Course Organization by Theme and Green Chemistry Principles Green Chemistry Principle Increase energy efficiency Use renewable feedstocks Use catalysts Prevent waste Maximize atom economy Design less hazardous chemical synthesis Avoid chemical derivatives Design for degradation Analyze in real time for pollution prevention Design safer chemicals and products Use safer solvents an reaction conditions Minimize the potential for accidents
Pollution and Waste Prevention
Safety (workers, general population, environment)
of the course. Examples of the course calendar, listing the discussion topics, are available in the Supporting Information. These topics and green chemistry principles served as the themes for the lecture topic, field trip, or student-led literature review. Generally, two student presentations were given during one class period. Course enrollment ranged from 16 to 25 students.
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COURSE ORGANIZATION AND OVERVIEW The course organization was based on the 12 principles of green chemistry1 and categorized by three themes:6 (i) energy, © 2012 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.
General Theme Energy (usage minimization; alternative sources)
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Figure 1. Course progression in green chemistry knowledge. Students began with an overview of the history and goals of green chemistry, along with a chemistry review. Next, students had lectures on various applications of green chemistry and participated in student-led literature reviews. The class culminated with group-written original research proposals.
added value of getting to know students better, particularly the quieter ones.
Students progressed in two main areas in the class: (i) scientific knowledge of green chemistry and sustainability and (ii) immersion into scientific literature. The progression in these areas is shown pictorially in Figures 1 and 2, respectively, and is described in more detail in the next section.
Reading Assignments, Class Participation, and Discussions
The media through which information was presented to students included traditional lectures, hands-on activities, movies, field trips, and literature presentations (see next section for a discussion of the literature presentations). The first lecture covered a historical timeline of the environmental movement and an introduction to green chemistry and sustainability. During the next lecture, students watched a movie, such as An Inconvenient Truth, that provides a broad perspective of the need for green chemistry and sustainability. The movies used featured many prominent scientists and facilitated assignments where students could begin literature searching by looking up papers by these scientists. An online course research guide8 was created to provide students a central place for literature research throughout the semester. A review of basic chemical concepts was also performed toward the beginning of the semester. The textbook used9 contained review chapters and homework problems that were assigned. Green chemistry teaching materials10,11 provided interesting case studies, lecture materials, and demonstrations. For example, during the waste-prevention unit, students completed an in-class activity on atom economy. They used molecular models to evaluate different methods for the synthesis of ibuprofen. During the energy unit, students participated in a project involving recently built solar panels constructed on campus as part of a new energy technology program.12 After a background lecture, the class toured the solar facilities on campus. They were given access to a Web site that tracks the amount of energy (kW) produced throughout the day. Each student selected a weather variable (e.g., humidity, temperature, cloud cover) and made a prediction of how that variable might affect the energy output. They monitored the energy output at a specified time of the day for two weeks. Students presented their data in class and discussed the results. Other notable activities were participation in a sustainability conference13 on campus and a field trip to a local recycling center.
Figure 2. Course progression in the areas of scientific literature usage. Students commenced with the basics of retrieval of factual information from the literature, progressing to presenting those facts to a broad audience, and concluding with an original research proposal from literature searching and reading.
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COURSE CONTENT
Student Green Journals
Each student was asked to keep a journal as depicted in Figure 3. The number of required journal entries has varied and most
Figure 3. Topics discussed in the “student green journals”. Journals were also graded on their scientific content and accuracy.
Student-Led Literature Review Presentations
Student literature reviews began 4−6 weeks into the semester, after a review on scientific writing and presentations. Students chose specific topics related to the unit “theme” (see Table 1). All literature papers and topics were approved and posted on the course Web site for the class to read prior to the presentation. To facilitate class discussion, students were expected to come to class with three questions written down about the paper. The class also filled out an evaluation form for each presentation. The purpose of the student evaluations was to engage students in the presentation and to think critically about their upcoming presentations. Anonymous group feedback was summarized and given to the presenters along with the instructor evaluation.
recently set at one entry per week. For the first journal entry, students used an online carbon footprint calculator7 to calculate their carbon footprints. The collective data was tabulated and the class evaluated the data during lecture. The same activity was performed at the end of the semester and incorporated into the final journal entry. The students were not expected to have any dramatic changes over the course of a semester and little changes were observed in the data. However, students mentioned how, at the end of the class, they better understood the carbon footprint calculator. Many felt that the more educated input allowed for a more accurate calculation. In addition to creating student awareness and reflection, the journals had the 430
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Research Proposal
1126. (c) Cann, M. C.; Dickneider, T. A. J. Chem. Educ. 2004, 81, 977. (d) Cann, M. C. J. Chem. Educ. 1999, 76, 1639. (4) (a) Collins, T. J. J. Chem. Educ. 1995, 72, 965. (b) MarteelParrish, A. E. J. Chem. Educ. 2007, 84, 245. (5) Honors Program at Creighton University. http://www.creighton. edu/ccas/honorsprogram/ (accessed Nov 2012). (6) Please note that some principles can be categorized in more than one theme and that a course could be organized differently. (7) The class used the Nature Conservancy calculator: http://www. nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator/ (accessed Nov 2012). (8) Course research guide: http://ralresearch.creighton.edu/content. php?pid=144470&hs=a (accessed Nov 2012). (9) Manahan, S. E. Green Chemistry and the Ten Commandments of Sustainability, 2nd ed. [Online]; ChemChar Research, Inc.: Columbia, MO, 2006http://www.asdlib.org/onlineArticles/ecourseware/ Manahan/GreenChemistry.php (accessed Nov 2012). (10) Introduction to Green Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2002. (11) Cann, M. C.; Connelly, M. E. Real World Cases in Green Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2000. (12) Creighton University Energy Technology. http://energy. creighton.edu/ (accessed Nov 2012). (13) The conference was a Conversations Conference on Nebraska Environment and Sustainability (http://www.nslw.org/conversations_ schedule.html) and included round-table discussions with experts in the following areas: land, water, energy, food and materials. (accessed Nov 2012). (14) People, Prosperity and the Planet Student Design Competition for Sustainability. http://www.epa.gov/ncer/p3/index.html (accessed Nov 2012).
The course work culminated in a written research proposal. The students worked in groups of 2−3, depending on class size. They also presented their proposal during the last week of class. The proposal format was modeled after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency P3 Program.14 Students were given a handout modified from the P3 format with a “call for proposals”. Class discussion concentrated on understanding research proposals, funding agencies, funding rates, and opportunities for undergraduate research. Students were encouraged to view the P3 Web site showing previously funded proposals. It was beneficial for them to appreciate that undergraduate students can receive funding for and perform research. To keep the groups on task, they were given deadlines for topic selection, and preproposal (1−2 page description of research plan), rough draft, and final proposal submission.
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CONCLUSION An undergraduate lecture course in green chemistry and sustainability was developed and taught to a “multidisciplinary” group of science and nonscience majors. The course introduced students to the topic of green chemistry and also familiarized them with how to use the scientific literature and how to communicate scientific ideas to scientists and nonscientists. The course was taught in the Honors Program at Creighton University and has been well received by students. A laboratory-based course is in development.
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ASSOCIATED CONTENT
S Supporting Information *
Course calendars used for the two semesters; grading rubrics for student presentations and papers; and additional assignment examples. 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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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author would like to thank the Creighton University Chemistry Department and Honors Program for the opportunity to teach this class, Michael Cherney, Dept. of Physics, for introducing the class to the solar energy project, and to Curtis Brundy, Reinert Undergraduate Library, for help developing the course research Web site.
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REFERENCES
(1) Anastas, P. T.; Warner, J. C. Green Chemistry Theory and Practice; Oxford University Press: New York, 1998. (2) These are just a few examples of laboratory experiments: (a) Stark, A.; Ott, D.; Kralisch, D.; Kreisel, G.; Ondruscha, B. J. Chem. Educ. 2010, 87, 196−201. (b) Cheney, M. L.; Zaworotko, M. J.; Beaton, S.; Singer, R. D. J. Chem. Educ. 2008, 88, 1649. (c) McKenzie, L. C.; Huffman, L. M.; Hutchison, J. E. J. Chem. Educ. 2005, 82, 306. (d) Harper, B. A.; Rainwater, J. C.; Birdwhistell, K.; Knight, D. A. J. Chem. Educ. 2002, 79, 729. (3) For examples, see (a) Song, Y.; Wang, Y.; Geng, Z. J. Chem. Educ. 2004, 81, 691. (b) Kitchens, C.; Charney, R.; Naistat, D.; Farrugia, J.; Clarens, A.; O’Neil, A.; Lisowski, C.; Braun, B. J. Chem. Educ. 2006, 83, 431
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