Connecting chemistry to sustainable development challenges – New Zealand teacher workshops

REDI’s Seamus Delaney recently delivered full-day workshops for science and chemistry teachers in four cities in New Zealand. The workshops, “Connecting Chemistry Teaching to Sustainable Development-Oriented Critical Challenges Through Systems Thinking”, were funded by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and invited by the Senior Chemistry Educators of New Zealand (SCENZ)

The workshops introduced systems thinking to secondary school teachers and demonstrated its usefulness in teaching science and chemistry, particularly to help students connect chemistry to global sustainability challenges. The teachers undertook a range of collaborative and classroom-ready practical activities including links to sustainable development-oriented contemporary science innovation.

The secondary science curriculum in New Zealand is currently under review and new achievement standards that leverage systems thinking to integrate aspects of chemistry to real world issues are being considered. The IUPAC project website will provide further updates and links to future publications. Dr Seamus Delaney is a task group member of the global IUPAC project Systems Thinking in Chemistry for Sustainability: Toward 2030 and Beyond, which is currently involved in research and development of secondary and post-secondary systems thinking in science education teaching and learning approaches.