Preface

Green chemistry education can be considered one of the hottest themes in our time. As is well known, green chemistry aims at the design, production and use of substances that are non-hazardous and at the design and use of environmentally benign production processes, in the perspective of sustainable development. This constitutes one of the most innovative and challenging tasks worldwide. Green chemistry education aims at incorporating information about green chemistry into chemical education, thus being called to design suitable options for all the broad educational areas—curriculum development, teaching, learning and outreach—and their specific components, from in-class activities to laboratory experiments to the dissemination of information to the public. A major objective of green chemistry education is to foster sustainable scientific literacy and to develop the corresponding skills among the present and future generations.

With this book, we aim at considering key issues of green chemistry education through the presentation of research, practices and theoretical reflections in different contexts, by educators from different countries and continents, i.e., Austria, Brazil, Canada, England, Germany, Israel, Malaysia, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Thailand and the USA. Our intention is that of offering a panorama of approaches and highlighting the connections between the general objectives of green chemistry education and the design of pedagogical options at different academic and school levels, apt for the characteristics of each individual experience and simultaneously interesting for other contexts. Presenting concrete didactic activities from different realities gives the opportunity to consider a variety of diverse possibilities for the incorporation of green chemistry education into chemical education. The book includes analyses of concrete experiences from the educational point of view, as well as general theoretical reflections on the approaches and on their suitability to promote the desired types of awareness in the young generations, keeping in mind the importance of social and environmental sustainability (nowadays and in the future) and the role that Chemistry can play to promote sustainable development.

The first part of the book considers the significance of green chemistry, green chemistry education, sustainable development, education for sustainable development, and other crucial issues, and a variety of corresponding approaches. This is followed by the presentation of a number of current initiatives in, or designed for, secondary school level. The attention given to the teaching of the green chemistry and sustainability concepts at basic education level is presently inadequate, and this needs to change. Teacher training courses and other training initiatives constitute an excellent opportunity to raise the profile of secondary school green chemistry education, and can conveniently incorporate experiences from the undergraduate and postgraduate university levels, with suitable adaptations. We believe that, by presenting a panoramic of challenges and possible responses and offering an updated insight into the most recent trends in green chemistry education worldwide, this book may constitute a valuable resource not only for chemical educators specifically interested in green chemistry education, but also for scientists, students, professionals, industrialists and policy-makers. We really hope that the readers will enjoy the direct contact with the experiences presented.

We wish to express our sincere gratitude to Merlin Fox, Alice Toby-Brant, Rowan Frame and Marisa Sartori for their fruitful cooperation and dedicated efforts in supporting the preparation of this book.

Vânia Zuin and Liliana Mammino