An introductory course in green chemistry: Progress and lessons learned

This work provides a description of our experience with designing and implementing green chemistry elements in higher education. It addresses the problem of content and methodology in green chemistry education and provides models of innovative approaches in design and teaching practices. An introductory course, Pollution Prevention, Green Chemistry and Green Engineering, supported by a grant from Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, was designed at Grand Valley State University (GVSU), in Michigan, in 2008 and run for the first time in 2009, with 12 students. The positive response from the students who took the class coupled with increasing visibility of green chemistry initiative at the state level (MI Governor’s Green Chemistry directive and Green Chemistry Round Table) led the GVSU administration to recognize the need of such a course and, after revision, to its inclusion into the Chemistry Department curriculum, under the designation “Introduction to green chemistry”, CHM 111. This remains to be a sought-after course for freshmen and upper-level undergraduates interested in the issues of green chemistry who have no chemistry background in their education. Since 2011, the course ran twice a year with a total of 302 students to date (December 2017). From semester to semester, it underwent several modifications, in order to accommodate the most recent, up-to-date developments in green chemistry and green engineering. The repository of teaching materials created is growing continuously. The progress and lessons learned throughout the years in running this course are summarized here.