Students in the general chemistry laboratory courses at Northwestern University have been “digging in the dirt for environmental justice” for the past fifteen years. They have been analyzing environmental samples – primarily soil, but also water, plants, and fish – for trace metals. Our students have -analyzed soil samples from around coal-fired power plants, studying which neighborhoods are most impacted by the mercury, lead, and other toxic metals being released from the stacks; -studied the levels of mercury in fish and seaweed being sold in neighborhood stores; -mapped out lead contamination in water in the city of Chicago; and, -examined the uptake of toxic metals into food crops from contaminated soil. With faculty guidance, the students make decisions about where to collect samples, digest them using EPA-standardized procedures, and use Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES) and ICP-MS (Mass Spectrometry) to determine concentrations of trace metals in the samples. In addition to the laboratory techniques, students are introduced to GIS mapping software and learn to perform statistical analyses of the data. In this talk, we will discuss how focusing the lens on environmental justice has been an effective tool in engaging first-year college students in the study of chemistry.

Digging in the dirt for environmental justice: Longitudinal case study

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.