Greening a Chemistry Teaching Methods Course at the School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia

Abstract

Green chemistry is the design, development and implementation of chemical products and processes to reduce or eliminate the use of sub-stances hazardous to human health and the environment. This article reports on the integration of green chemistry and sustainable development concepts (SDCs) into an existing teaching methods course for chemistry pre-service teachers. Incorporation of SDCs with green chemistry enhances the interdisciplinary nature of green chemistry. It is in line with the course purpose of introducing instructional strategies for teaching chemistry at the secondary level. Through the experiences of hands-on activities, writing lesson plans and integration of SDC content into lectures and discussion, pre-service teachers learned how to integrate these elements into their own courses. The design of this course is an example of how to integrate green chemistry incorporated with SDCs into a teacher education curriculum.