In 2015, the United Nations adopted a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as part of a new, global agenda for all countries to address world-wide challenges of ending poverty, protecting the planet and ensuring prosperity. For educators, this is an unparalleled opportunity to provide a unique teaching and learning experience where students can make significant contributions to help achieve these goals. Such an approach can be a driver for innovative green and sustainable chemistry curriculum initiatives that would serve as the lens by which the entire chemistry community views the SDGs, and provide a broader framework for how STEM education can have an impact in achieving these goals. We will explore a model where faculty integrate and scaffold research and scholarship through the curriculum, integrate project-based learning pedagogy, and use the SDGs as a theme to engage students in solving real-world problems. The SDGs also offer a powerful framework to foster interdisciplinary, project-based learning that can help students from multiple disciplines weave together the many strands that make up the SDGs. Students will graduate having contributed to solving critical global challenges associated with sustainable development, and they will be exceptionally prepared for continuing this work after graduation. Furthermore, an understanding of systems and life cycle thinking will require contributions from many sectors of the chemistry enterprise to collaborate around a central theme where the SDGs are a strategic priority.

Linking the UN sustainable development goals to green and sustainable chemistry: Unique opportunity for chemistry education

2019 Spring National Meeting

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