Adapting the Anchoring Concepts Content Map (ACCM) of ACS Exams by Incorporating a Theme: Merging Green Chemistry and Organic Chemistry

Abstract

The American Chemical Society (ACS), Division of Chemical Education, Examinations Institute, has been developing content maps to describe comprehensively the undergraduate curriculum aligned to traditional subdisciplines. These content maps have been developed through the combined efforts of many faculty members who teach the targeted courses in the subdiscipline. A recent collaboration between the Examinations Institute and the ACS Green Chemistry Institute has resulted in the consideration of green chemistry content in the context of the content maps. The inclusion of green chemistry concepts in the context of organic chemistry has been the initial focus of the work of this collaboration. Through working with faculty who teach green chemistry courses or organic chemistry courses with the theme of green chemistry, the organic chemistry content map has been revised and reconceptualized with the theme of green chemistry included. The process, excerpts of the content map, and alignments of traditional organic chemistry exam items to both the organic chemistry content map and the organic chemistry content map with the inclusion of green chemistry are reported.

Techniques adopted in teaching students organic chemistry course for several years

“…It is different from the past, where Organic Chemistry was taught after General Chemistry I and II (Provencher et al, 2020). The curriculum was revised by incorporating the theme of green chemistry (Holme et al, 2020).…”

“…Several experiments applied the modified curriculum in an organic chemistry course for years with the knowledge that the curriculum is focused on education research. Therefore, several studies focused on the application of modified curriculum in teaching and learning organic chemistry (Childs & O' Dwyer, 2014;Cooper et al, 2019;Galloway et al, 2017;Grove & Lowery Bretz, 2012;Holme et al, 2020;ipton, 2020;Provencher et al, 2020;Yunshen Zhang, 2017) Courses related to organic chemistry are applied in the spiral curriculum, which is reviewed repeatedly in a course while including the required themes and topics in every meeting (Harden & Stamper, 1999). The spiral curriculum is focused on reorganizing the curriculum, separated by organic content and not consecutive topics.…”

“…It also involves the organic content, accompanied by the real-world application (Cooper et al, 2019). The last is the process of modifying the organic chemistry curriculum by incorporating the theme of green chemistry in every organic matter (Holme et al, 2020).…”

Topics Amenable to a Systems Thinking Approach: Secondary and Tertiary Perspectives

“…These perceptions may reflect how these topics are covered in curricula; both equilibrium and acid−base chemistry are incorporated into many other topics in the tertiary curriculum, reflecting their centrality for organic, biochemical, and industrial chemical processes. 38,39 In comparison, within the secondary chemistry curriculum used by teachers in this study, 40 it is feasible for teachers to cover the equilibrium, acid−base chemistry, and atomic theory topics in a "reductionist" or "analytical" manner, teaching them individually as fairly isolated topics across 3−4 weeks of a school term. This finding agrees with anecdotal evidence that only a small proportion of secondary teachers make the application of these topics explicit across various contexts in the chemistry study design.…”

“…At the tertiary level, there was also significant interest and support for the notion of using a systems thinking approach. Although the tertiary curriculum is less rigid, work done through the Anchoring Concept Content project indicates that the undergraduate curriculum is so far also fairly reductionist, consisting of topics typically taught in short blocks, although work has begun to integrate green chemistry as a theme . Thus, preliminary implementation of systems thinking within the topics identified here as low-hanging fruit (namely, the atmosphere, energy and food chemistry) is recommended as a way to promote this approach among academic staff.…”