From the Chemistry of Responsible Environmentalism to Environmentally Responsible Chemistry
The Symposium at BCCE
The symposium "From the Chemistry of Responsible Environmentalism to Environmentally Responsible Chemistry" was part of the 13th Biennial Conference on Chemical Education held at Bucknell University in the summer of 1994. The five papers published here are reprentative of the breadth and scope of the symposium. They span a diverse range of topics and concerns that will be of substantial interest to a variety of readers in the community of chemical educators.
Cusumano's paper (page 959) , "Environmentally Sustainable Growth in the 21st Century--The Role of Catalytic Science and Technology", was a plenary lecture at the BCCE. It not only introduces applications not widely or customarily considered in undergraduate curricula, but also presents these concerns from the point of view of an emerging industry. It was very well received and provoked active discussions at the meeting.
Collins (page 965), in "Introducing Green Chemistry in Teaching and Research", describes the author's successful efforts to bring the chemistry of environmentalism both to undergraduate and to graduate courses at a major research university, and to apply these principles in the design and implementation of courses there.
Swan and Spiro (page 967, in"Context in Chemistry: Integrating Environmental Chemistry with the Chemistry Curriculum", cogently argue that environmental issues provide the context in which chemistry can be brought to nonscience majors in a provocative and stimulating manner. Indeed the authors persuade us that the pedagogic issue, the context in which chemistry is presented, can be at least as important as the content.
Williams' paper (page 971), "Success and Techniques Associated with the Chemistry of Radioactive Wastes", graphically illustrates the point of the Swan/Spiro paper by focusing on what has been one of the most intractable environmental issues of the last half-century. His course has shown that real, tough issues provide just the motivating context Swan and Spiro propose.
In "The Environmental Chemistry of Trace Atmospheric Gases" (page 973), Trogler elegantly suggests how the interaction between introductory chemistry students and research faculty can provoke both new insights into, and approaches toward, both teaching and research.
More Information on Including Environmental Chemistry in the Classroom
The Symposium described at left serves as a good overview of the different ways that environmental concerns are changing the chemistry curriculum--both what is taught and how it is taught. In order to quantitize this impact, Aram and Manahan (page 977) conducted a survey of courses taught in U.S. colleges and universities. Their findings reveal that almost half of the chemistry departments offer courses in envirnmental chemistry and another quarter are contemplating instituting them in the future. The process of adding these courses to an already crowded curriculum is not always easy and is influenced by local facilities and degree requirements. Two papers in this issue present the successful strategy both for establishing an environmental science program and for designing a course. Offering an major in environmental science is particularly challenging because it ideally involves interdisciplinary work. Hartman and Soltzberg (page 981) ennumerate the problems with providing this diverse training and also meeting ACS/CPT guidelines, describing the program at Simmons College as illustration. In a separate paper, Soltzberg (page 979) focuses on the design of a particular course for this program: physical chemistry for environmental science majors.
Not every science student wants a major in environmental science or even a whole course on the topic; however, this does not exclude them from learning environmental applications of chemistry--teachers have many opportunities to introduce interesting material both in lectures and through laboratory experiments. Rajeshwar and Ibanez (page 1044) present a review of the electrochemical aspects of photosynthesis and its application to detoxification and disinfection strategies for reducing pollutants. Ibanez, Takimoto, Vasquez, Basek, Myung, and Rajeshwar (page 1050) then follow up the theoretical discussion with a laboratory experiment featuring the electrocoagulation of oily wastewater. Another environmental laboratory exercise is offered by Weinstein-Lloyd and Lee (page 1053), who have their students analyze hydrogen peroxide (a component of photochemical air pollution) by fluorescence spectroscopy using real samples of rainwater.
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