Behind the Scenes of Teaching Green: An Iterative Approach to Curriculum Design and Implementation in the General Chemistry Laboratory

Abstract

As the 21st century progresses, we are increasingly reminded of the importance of and need for green chemistry, which also leads to the corresponding need for green chemistry education. The UC Berkeley Department of Chemistry developed a green chemistry laboratory curriculum─the General Chemistry Green Curriculum (GC²)─recognizing general chemistry as a keystone course for introducing green chemistry to STEM professionals. This initiative focused both on what green chemistry content was taught and how that green chemistry content was delivered using the Knowledge Integration framework to design a curriculum that provided students with opportunities to integrate normative green chemistry concepts and practices into their existing knowledge schema. This initiative also used a utilization-focused evaluation framework to guide iterative improvements in the curriculum over three semesters. Ultimately, this process allowed us, in collaboration with instructors and students, to develop and refine over 50 new green chemistry postlab questions, 25 new green chemistry prelab questions, and 47 green chemistry in-lab prompts for the final version of GC². We found that it is important to integrate green chemistry into both curriculum and pedagogy to signal to students that it is a valued practice. We also found that a successful curriculum implementation necessitates the buy-in from and support of the graduate teaching assistants since they do not always have prior knowledge of green chemistry. We hope that this study can provide a guide for institutions aiming to embed green chemistry into their courses or curricula─emphasizing stakeholder collaboration, continuous iteration, and a comprehensive pedagogical framework.