DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scp.2020.100234

Summary
The article provides practical examples of the role of chemistry in the discovery and production of pharmaceuticals and ways they can be incorporated into a general chemistry course. A method that has been proposed to transfer of knowledge from one to other science settings is to incorporate systems thinking and rich contexts that directly connect foundational chemistry ideas to larger systems. The science of pharmaceuticals is a topic that shows strong potential for such efforts, adding examples related to the chemistry of drugs. The discovery, development, use and abuse, societal implications and environmental fate of drugs represents one option where efforts to incorporate a systems thinking approach shows some promise.
The author proposes seven traits of systems and systems thinking: (a) identification of the components and the processes of a system; (b) identification of the dynamic relationships within the system and among the system components; (c) organization of a framework of relationships for the system; (d) understanding that many systems are cyclic in nature; (e) generalization of the outcomes of the system; (f) understanding that systems may have hidden dimensions; (g) use of a system perspective to think temporally, including retrospection and prediction. These traits provide a framework that can help incorporate some aspects of systems thinking by adding rich context examples of chemistry that are relevant to students’ lives and interests.
A laboratory course that emphasizes the connectedness of chemistry to other topics was developed and it refers to tri-partite learning outcomes: the knowledge outcomes which are related with the question “What We Know?”; the evidential outcomes which are related with the question “How We Know It?”; and the relevance outcomes which are related with the questions “Why It Matters?”.
In the initial implementation of the course presented in this paper, there are essentially two levels considered. In the first level (the whole-class setting) specific connections to a few foundational topics are presented, and the focus tends to be more strongly associated with promoting the understanding students have of components that contribute to larger systems. The primary way that these components are then connected to systems and assessed via a writing assignment that requires students to explore at least two aspects of a life cycle analysis of a drug molecule. Students choose the drug of interest to them, and evidence from this initial implementation suggests that they find this task achievable.
In the second level, the ability to identify projects more suited to small groups from within the larger group setting has been implemented. This aspect of introducing systems thinking is more capable of moving beyond the treatment of components and incorporate more varied and complex connections of chemistry with the society. This was accompanied by student participation in the construction of a SOCME diagram of a drug, cytarabine. Student interest was used to direct which aspects of larger systems thinking needed to be considered, and student research work was certainly capable of providing information that could usefully expand the system upon repeated queries of how the boundary being considered for the system might be expanded.

Relevance for Complex Systems Knowledge
The paper deals with systems thinking.
Defining systems thinking for educational settings has been more thoroughly explored in biology, engineering, environmental science and geosciences, and the definitions of systems thinking that are developed share similarities but are not identical. Thus, the aspects of systems thinking that are incorporated in the presented implementation are enumerated as traits of systems and systems thinking:
• an ability to identify the components and the processes of a system;
• an ability to identify dynamic relationships within the system and among the system components;
• an ability to organize a framework of relationships for the system;
• an ability to understand that many systems are cyclic in nature;
• the ability to generalize outcomes of the system;
• understanding that systems may have hidden dimensions;
• an ability to use a system perspective to think temporally, including retrospection and prediction.

Point of Strength
The strength of the publication is the presented implementation strategy for incorporating systems thinking into general chemistry via life cycle assessment of pharmaceuticals by students.