DOI
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.9b00277

Summary
The paper describes the redesigned general chemistry laboratory course of the University of California, Berkeley’s, around green chemistry content and practices.
The UC-Berkeley general chemistry laboratory (Chem 1AL) serves thousands of students each year from diverse backgrounds. These students encompass a wide range of intended majors including life sciences, bioengineering, public health, and civil engineering.
More than 30 new experiments that introduced students to green chemistry concepts and applications, while maintaining canonical general chemistry learning goals, were developed.
Nearly every new experiment was designed to use fewer hazardous chemicals, produce less waste or only nontoxic waste, and use renewable resources whenever possible. The laboratory manual describes the goals of green chemistry, the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry, and explicitly lists the principles that apply to each experiment.
In order to determine if the targeted introduction of green chemistry could impact student understanding of green chemistry, the assessment of the curriculum was designed around the following questions:
1. Do students believe they have learned green chemistry? Do students value green chemistry?
2. Does students’ understanding of green chemistry increase after completing the general chemistry laboratory, given a limited introduction of green chemistry into the curriculum?
3. Are students with different levels of prior green chemistry knowledge able to reach similar levels of understanding after completing the general chemistry laboratory?
Since over 2000 students complete the laboratory course each year, the authors used a combination of fixed response items and free response items from online surveys and in-class assignments and exams. This approach allowed efficient assessment of thousands of students, while still gaining valuable and nuanced views of student understanding and attitudes.
These assessments indicated that the new general chemistry laboratory curriculum succeeded in providing an environment in which students learned green chemistry concepts and realized that chemistry has connections to their future courses and professions.
By the end of the semester, most students offered correct or partially correct specific definitions of green chemistry and a smaller percentage included practices and philosophy related to green chemistry. More than half the students were able to give specific correct answers to a novel scenario in a green chemistry exam question.
Importantly, students with little prior knowledge of green chemistry ended the course with a level of understanding similar to that for students who had significant prior knowledge.
However, the assessment showed that there are still additional opportunities to add depth to student knowledge and increase the impact of the curriculum.

Relevance for Complex Systems Knowledge
sustainable development.
The introduction for each new experiment uses green chemistry to highlight the inherent interconnectedness of chemistry to other systems and disciplines (such as toxicology).
The use of multiweek experiments progressively built toward more complex concepts and skills while retaining the same learning context.
The goal of this new curriculum was to introduce green chemistry concepts and skills so that students could begin approaching chemical issues from a systems-thinking approach. Students entered the course familiar with certain general terms related to sustainable practices, such as eco-friendliness or efficiency. In general, students moved toward a more holistic systems-thinking approach. After completing the course, they shifted from focusing only on isolated chemical reactions to sourcing and end of life consideration as shown in their definitions of green chemistry (e.g., waste, hazards, total reaction, material life cycle) and their responses to the green chemistry scenario exam question (end of life/waste).

Point of Strength
The strength of the publication is the Development of a General Chemistry Laboratory Curriculum with emphasis to Green Chemistry as well as the design of the assessment of the curriculum.