Exploring curriculum adoption of green and sustainable chemistry in undergraduate organic chemistry courses: results from a national survey in the United States

Abstract

This study sought to explore the integration of green and sustainable chemistry into the organic chemistry curriculum through a national survey of organic chemistry instructors (n = 160) within the United States. It was found that faculty were most familiar with the green chemistry topics of reaction efficiency and catalysis and least familiar with the topics of efficiency metrics and life cycle impacts of chemicals. This unfamiliarity with efficiency metrics and life cycle impacts of chemicals was echoed in a low perceived importance for chemistry and related science students to know these concepts and subsequently the incorporation of green chemistry topics was amongst the lowest of the topics evaluated. Similarly, it was found that most faculty were unaware of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and planetary boundaries, and thus the integration of these topics into the curriculum was also low. To identify which factors affected the integration of green chemistry, the survey items were developed using the Teacher-Centered Systemic Reform model. Stepwise linear regression was used to identify which factors significantly affected its integration into the teaching curriculum and assessments. Overall, it was found that that teacher thinking factors held the greatest impact. In addition, departmental requirement or encouragement of green chemistry integration was found to significantly impact its incorporation for both the curriculum and assessments. These results suggest that there is a need both to provide training opportunities for faculty to become more familiar with these topics and their relevance to the organic curriculum and to work with people in leadership roles at the universities to encourage departmental integration.