For the past 10 years, we have incorporated an annual lecture and laboratory session on green chemistry themes into our General Chemistry II curriculum for science majors. The main topics in our lecture, held close to Earth Day, are related to materials widely used in our daily lives, e.g. aluminum, glass, different plastic polymers, and batteries, along with principles of recycling. Our goal is to increase student awareness of chemical products in our everyday lives and global environmental issues, by focusing on our variation of the original 3Rs: resources, responsibility, and recycling. For our spring 2017 semester, we have decided to expand our student audience by inviting non-science major students currently enrolled in a course to fulfill their science requirement. Both General Chemistry II students and non-majors are scheduled to participate simultaneously. Much of the lecture content is the same as in prior years, and the laboratory session still instructs students in the identification of more than 30 household items according to their recycling categories. The laboratory will now include some additional demonstrations on physical properties of materials. Following these sessions, students are expected to complete a short survey to assess the impact of these lecture and laboratory activities, and the opinions of science versus non-science majors. These sessions are in keeping with the mission statement of Touro College, which includes our commitment to the transmission of knowledge, social justice, and service to society.

Introducing green chemistry concepts to science and non-science majors in college

254th National Meeting (2017)

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