United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as a Thematic Framework for an Introductory Chemistry Curriculum

As part of a revision to the content and delivery of first-year chemistry instruction at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus, we have employed the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) as a thematic framework. This framework was introduced to promote the achievement...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of chemical education 2019-12, Vol.96 (12), p.2845-2851
Main Authors: Petillion, Riley J, Freeman, Tamara K, McNeil, W. Stephen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chemistry
College Students
Colleges & universities
Course Content
Curricula
Educational activities
Foreign Countries
Group Activities
Higher education
International Organizations
Introductory Courses
Learning
Learning Activities
Learning outcomes
Objectives
Organic chemistry
Positive Attitudes
Relevance (Education)
Science and Society
Science Curriculum
Science education
Science Instruction
Semi Structured Interviews
Student attitudes
Sustainable Development
Systems Approach
World Problems
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Summary:As part of a revision to the content and delivery of first-year chemistry instruction at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus, we have employed the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) as a thematic framework. This framework was introduced to promote the achievement of affective learning outcomes, including a systems thinking approach to exploring the relevance of first-year chemistry content and concepts to societal and global challenges. Through this framework, sets of course concepts, which are traditionally limited in their application to isolated textbook chapters, are demonstrated, through various in-class group activities, to have collective applications to the environmental and societal systems embodied by specific SDGs. Student attitudes to this framework and its associated activities were examined via a course-end survey and in-depth semistructured interviews. Student responses were generally positive, indicating an appreciation for the relevance of course concepts to the global challenges described by the SDGs, and for many students, the SDG-framed learning activities aided in their understanding of course concepts.
ISSN:0021-9584
1938-1328
DOI:10.1021/acs.jchemed.9b00307