GREEN CHEMISTRY AND SUSTAINABLE SCIENCE: A Green Approach to Sustainable STEM in K-12

New York has been transitioning to updated New York State Science Learning Standards (NYSSLS), based on the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). As members of the Green Chemistry Professional Learning Team (GC-PLT), we have been developing curricula for our own use that reflect the updated standards and elements of instructional best practice, such as storylines, driving questions, and ...

The impacts of chemicals on humans and the environment are a critical consideration for green chemistry practices. The three lessons in this chapter provide opportunities for students to consider the potential impacts of chemicals in the products they use and are exposed to in their lives. The objective of the lessons in this chapter is to make these considerations explicit for students. In doing ...

Typical chemistry instruction engages students with a variety of chemicals to understand the structure of atoms and molecules. Our goal in this chapter is to provide three example lessons that illustrate how to engage students with concepts of structure through design, modeling, and phenomena that use less toxic chemicals and limit student and teacher exposure. Several of these lessons are good ...

The core of green chemistry principles is understanding how to make informed choices when designing chemical reactions that account for atom economy, human and environmental safety, and the life cycle of products. To engage students in learning about chemical reactions with a green chemistry perspective, we present the three lessons in this chapter intended to:
• Show how to actively engage ...

This chapter is meant to illustrate what a unit-level learning experience can look like as students engage in concepts related to structure and chemical reactions. While the prior chapters provided a set of lessons around a specific topic at different grade spans, this middle school unit illustrates how students can engage in a variety of investigations and modeling to explore the molecular nature ...