Evaluating the Environmental Impact of Chemistry Education: A Pilot Extracurricular Activity for Undergraduate Students

Abstract

Nowadays, discussing global environmental issues has become regularly included in STEM-based higher education, emphasizing the importance of the youth in finding ad hoc solutions for the climate crisis. One of the most commonly applied strategies is promoting sustainable choices among students, especially linked to their lifestyle choices, or implementing small changes to aim for large-scale cumulative effects. Herein, a learning and research activity designed for undergraduate students is presented, aimed at raising their awareness of a less discussed type of global warming contributors, namely greenhouse gases (GHGs), being a fundamental example of gaseous waste produced at universities as part of STEM education programs. In this extracurricular project, a multidisciplinary group of students performed a series of real-time measurements of exemplary GHGs emissions during the chemistry-oriented practical courses taken by their peers. As a result, qualitative and quantitative information about the gaseous waste produced in the student laboratories was obtained and linked to various laboratory activities, raising student consciousness about the frequently neglected gases produced in the laboratory that also contribute to the environmental crisis. This research activity enables students to apply analytical chemistry to evaluate their own chemical footprint in the laboratory. Furthermore, this project aims to illustrate the importance of engaging students in extracurricular learning and research activities.