Institution
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

Web Site
https://www.uoa.gr/

Factual description
The postgraduate course “Special Topics and experiments of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry” of the inter-institutional postgraduate program “Chemistry Education, Information and Communication Technology and Education for Sustainable Development” at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) ,has been selected to be investigated since it is relative to complex systems.
In this lecture the presentation and approach of the complex system is done mainly through the development of appropriate system diagrams, which are used both as teaching tools and as evaluation tools, which depict either the whole system under study or parts (subsystems) of it.
This educational tool helps students to better understand the components of the system and the interactions between them as well as the properties of the system as a whole and perhaps system interactions with other complex systems.
The teaching in this course is mainly focused on chemistry but also contains some interdisciplinary elements, e.g. environmental issues, biology issues, insofar as they relate to chemistry issues. The students are also introduced in system thinking. First it is being clarified that in the literature the definition of system thinking is not entirely clear. The various theoretical definitions that have been given are presented. The lecture focuses on a specific theoretical model (DSRP) that it is been considered to form an interdisciplinary, unifying and independent content framework for systems thinking, which enables to establish the basic skills that are related to the development of systemic thinking and can be measurable. Systems thinking is essential for the students’ understanding of the course topic and it is expected to be useful on their future career and employment.
At this specific lecture sustainable issues or ethical dimension are not discussed. According to the interviewee the following aspects of Complex Systems that are considered relevant to be taught for sustainable development are the following: System delimitation, multiple interactions, balancing, holistic behavior and interdisciplinary approach. With regard to the ethical dimension, the interviewee considers it as very important, giving emphasis to the need of not putting financial profit above issues related to environmental protection and human health.

Relevance in complex systems
This lecture is relevant to complex system since it focuses on the use of systems diagrams as educational tool (both for teaching as well as for evaluation purposes).

Strong points
The strong point of the described lecture is the use of system diagrams and the participation of students in the development of such diagrams.

Transferability potential
Practices like system diagrams could be used to other courses to enhance students on system thinking.