Teaching Green Chemistry: Systems Thinking, Assessments, and Curricular Design

This workshop will consist of the following parts:

Part One: Green Chemistry and Systems Thinking for Gateway Courses and Beyond

1. Introduce workshop participants to the general format of the new ACSGCI teaching modules and describe at least one module in detail.

2. Guide participants through the planning process for including one or more modules in their general or organic chemistry course curricula.

3. Encourage feedback from participants concerning their anticipated impediments to implementation, module concepts that do/don’t fit well with their curricula, and positive/negative first impressions.

Part Two: Assessment of Impacts of Green Chemistry Curriculum

New ACS Guidelines for Bachelor’s Degree Programs advocate for integrating green chemistry into university chemistry courses. However, assessing students’ understanding of these principles remains challenging due to a lack of established tools. This workshop aims to assist green chemistry educators with assessing students’ cognitive and affective outcomes. This half-day workshop will start with an introduction to backward design. Participants will learn the three stages of backward design: i) identify desired results; ii) determine acceptable evidence; and iii) plan learning experiences.

The workshop will cover an introduction to measurement, research designs (pre-/post-test, treatment/control, multiple groups), measurement alignment with constructs of interest, data collection practices, data analysis, and reporting. The participants will be given templates for administering assessment instruments and examples of appropriate narratives to convey the assessment part of their curriculum innovations.

Organizers

Dr. David Laviska, American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Institute
Dr. Sarah Prescott, University of New Hampshire
Prof. Alexey Leontyev, North Dakota State University
Prof. Yujuan Liu, California State University Sacramento