Secondary Chemistry teachers from across Victoria attended a Systems Thinking in Chemistry Education (STICE) symposium on Friday, September 13th. Alfred Deakin Professor Colin Barrow (Director, Centre for Chemistry and Biotechnology, Deakin), Associate Professor Jenny Pringle (Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin) and Dr Andrew Eaton (NSW teacher) all gave insightful presentations that generated vigorous discussion on how systems thinking, circular economy and life cycle analysis can have greater impact on our chemistry teaching and learning in the near future.
Seamus Delaney and Madeleine Schultz (School of Life & Enviro Science, Deakin) also ran interactive activities on teaching practice, and introduced educational resources that will be available on the soon to be launched Elements of Sustainable Chemistry (ESC) website.
The symposium and prior workshops were funded by a Deakin Science and Society Network (SSN) Interdisciplinary establishment grant. Seamus and Madeleine wish to thank the SSN for their support, Dr Joe Ferguson for his research involvement, the speakers at the symposium, and lastly the secondary teachers and university academics who engaged in multiple events across the project!