Chemistry is usually a “scary” word to the non-STEM students and the general audience. When it comes to climate change, ozone depletion, water contamination, air pollution, or food shortages, these and other societal issues are regularly featured in the media and attract more interest. Chemistry is one that plays a crucial role in addressing all environmental challenges. While many Humanities and Social Sciences students are interested in environmental studies, at least one chemistry course is required for them to graduate from college. I would like to first introduce the specially designed “Introduction to Environmental Chemistry” course at New College of Florida. During the class, we looked into these environmental issues and introduced a variety of case studies to attract the students’ attention then learn the chemical processes behind them and improve the quality of our lives. The core of this course is learning to think critically about complex subjects by applying broad knowledge and transferable skills in a socially responsible manner. It emphasizes how the specific discipline of chemistry can help us understand the environmental issues, and what it tells us about possible solutions to environmental problems the world is facing, eventually gets involved in sustainable development. Secondly, I would like to introduce the “Arts in Chemistry” Community Engagement Initiatives of my Introduction to Environmental Chemistry and Advanced Chemistry courses. One major activity is building an “Arts in Chemistry” website including various <i>artistic representations of core environmental chemistry concepts Infographics</i> and <i>various experiment-based demos</i> to high school teachers, students, and local community members. These Infographic projects and demos are published on a self-designed website and shared publicly with the local community and high school students.

Engagement of humanities and social sciences students with environmental chemistry and “Arts in Chemistry” community engagement initiative

ACS Spring 2022

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