DOI
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.9b00263

Summary
This paper presents a new approach to introducing high school chemistry that links to Earth’s systems using a systems thinking framework. Systems thinking concepts such as connectedness, nestedness, and feedback loops are central to this framework. Authors point out the potential of chemistry to be more meaningful, relevant, useful, and valuable to students when matter and energy are taught in the context of Earth’s systems. This teaching approach is also consistent with the requisition for a shift from knowledge about phenomena to systems thinking and modeling in order to explain phenomena. Teaching chemistry in the context of Earth’s systems may also demystify and make relevant abstract concepts essential to understanding basic chemistry.
This structure of the proposed approach provides students with a bridge to the larger world that makes chemistry relevant and empowering. Specific activities and content, using examples of human and natural systems, are introduced in the beginning of the course and guide and support the entire content. Beginning the course with systems thinking helps students realize that chemical reactions impact their surroundings and that these surrounding environments are composed of complex nested systems. The remaining chemistry content is framed by systems thinking and an ecocentric paradigm. To better understand complex systems, systems thinking tools such as graphic organizers together with educational websites that provide information on various systems thinking tools and examples of how they can be used in the classroom are proposed. Considerable work lies ahead as this course continues to evolve and more units are redesigned to incorporate systems thinking.

Relevance for Complex Systems Knowledge
The paper deals with systems thinking, sustainable development and complex systems.
Systems thinking is defined as “the understanding of a phenomenon within the context of a larger whole”. The paper presents a systems-thinking framework that is based on the central concepts: connectedness, nestedness, and feedback loops. Authors report students’ opinions that chemistry could contribute directly or indirectly to every of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015. They also connect systems thinking with the understanding of complex systems and their complexity.

Point of Strength
The strength of the publication is the provision of examples of the activities used to introduce both chemistry content and systems thinking in the context of Earth’s systems, allowing students to predict the future behavior of a complex dynamic system.