Summary
This overview outlines the recent progress made in addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals through educators incorporating systems thinking approaches within green and sustainable chemistry education.
The author suggests that a systems thinking approach towards green chemistry education (and chemistry education more broadly) can equip future generations with the skills to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), bringing the planet closer towards a sustainable society. Across all levels of chemistry education, impetus to achieve this can be provided by a central learning outcome that chemicals have both hazards and benefits that must be considered together.
Programme-level and course-level approaches to embedding systems thinking into teaching is further discussed, providing information of such approaches at University of York.
Moreover, the author reports an example of how a course-level approach to exemplar teaching interventions to facilitate systems thinking became transferrable for global implementation through a workshop in Brazil.
Furthermore, specific resources such as practical experiments and use of technology-enhanced and game-based learning strategies are discussed:
• At the University of York, through engaging with faculty and working with students as partners, a systems thinking approach to substituting borax with a non-hazardous alternative in the Silly Putty experiment was taken. Students in York also developed a rheology experiment, which has been performed by students in Brazil, demonstrating the accessibility and transferability of this experiment.
• The ability of students to be able to study entire systems as communicated via student feedback can also serve as motivation to develop new practical experiments/problem-based learning mini projects. Throughout such a project, students at York used genipin, a green cross-linking agent obtained from geniposide in gardenia to explore smart polymeric hydrogels as drug delivery systems. Unusually, upon cross linking, a coloured gel is formed, allowing students to study such pigmentation via UV-vis spectrophotometry, but in addition, the gel also autofluoresces, allowing for fluorescence intensity measurements to be taken. This presents an excellent opportunity to teach students about other areas of chemistry simultaneously.
• ‘Green Machine’, a competitive strategy card game facilitating a systems thinking approach to learning recycling processes and green chemistry in accordance with the SDGs, is proposed by the author.
• Social media platforms such as Snapchat can be used not just to share examples of systems that students can identify with as part of their own lives but also to encourage students to solve problems through posting challenges and associated updates when system parameters/outputs change.
• CHEM21 learning platform comprises a range of free, shareable and interactive educational and training materials to promote the uptake of green and sustainable methodologies with an emphasis on synthesis of pharmaceuticals.
The author also refers to workshops for graduate students to embed a systems thinking approach to learning. Such workshops provide a valuable insight into issues associated with sustainable manufacturing covering change management, environmental impact, circular economy, legislation and bioresources, incorporating the conversion of waste into valuable products.
Relevance for Complex Systems Knowledge
This paper proposes systems thinking approaches within green and sustainable chemistry education to reimagine higher education. A blend of programme-level and course-level approaches at the University of York and use of technology-enhanced and game-based learning strategies are discussed. To maximise global applicability, an emphasis has been placed on making such teaching interventions transferrable with case studies included to illustrate this. Using a systems thinking approach to green chemistry education offered an exciting opportunity to develop new methodologies to integrate low-cost and nontoxic chemistry experiments, activities and electronic resources into Brazilian schools and universities.
