EAGER GERMINATION: Chemistry Graduate Education - Sustainability and the Circular Economy

该项目由NSF工程萌芽计划理事会资助，该计划旨在促进教学方法的发展，以提高学术研究人员制定具有潜在变革成果的研究问题和想法的能力。基于研究生化学教育传统上高度学科化，往往与社会的关键挑战脱节的前提下，该项目旨在提高化学博士生的能力，通过将社会，经济，环境和治理（SEEG）的观点纳入博士化学课程开发与社会相关的研究问题。将采用多方面的方法，包括一个新的团队授课的课程，涉及SEEG尺寸，一个新的绿色化学选修课程，并对博士资格研究提案和论文研究的要求进行大修，包括大量的SEEG组件。更多地考虑和理解体制背景、政策过程和创新机会，应使学生能够更有效地利用其化学知识，为社会需求服务，特别是在可持续性和循环经济方面。该项目将探索一种系统的方法，使毕业生具备知识、技能、经验和观点，从而以高度跨学科的方式提出旨在通过化学科学更好地解决重要社会问题的有意义的研究。一个新的化学博士教育教学框架将开发和试点，整合重要的社会，经济，环境和治理问题与化学学科教育。该框架将涉及多个组成部分，包括：1）研究生水平的团队授课的跨学科化学核心课程，整合SEEG方面，为理解环境可持续性和循环经济提供基础; 2）团队授课的绿色化学研究生课程，涉及化学，经济学和社会科学等多学科教学; 3）由来自学术界，非政府组织和私营部门的一系列专家提出的研讨会计划，他们也将担任导师; 4）博士学位的要求。合格的研究建议，包括大量的SEEG组件;和5）要求博士论文包括一章关于提出SEEG知情的研究问题。该项目将通过试行更全面的教育和专业发展方法来挑战传统的、以学科为中心的教学范式，该方法有目的地与我们生活的高度一体化和相互依存的世界保持一致。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project is funded through the NSF Directorate for Engineering Germination program, which seeks to foster the development of pedagogical approaches to increase the ability of academic researchers to formulate research questions and ideas with potentially transformative outcomes. Based on the premise that graduate Chemistry education is traditionally highly disciplinary and often disconnected from society’s critical challenges, this project aims to enhance the ability of Chemistry doctoral students to develop research questions with societal relevance by incorporating societal, economic, environmental, and governance (SEEG) perspectives into the PhD Chemistry curriculum. A multi-faceted approach will be used encompassing a new team-taught course that involves SEEG dimensions, a new green chemistry elective course, and an overhaul of requirements for the doctoral qualifying research proposal and dissertation research to include substantial SEEG components. Increased consideration of, and appreciation for, institutional contexts, policy processes, and innovation opportunities should enable students to position themselves to use their chemical knowledge more effectively for change in service of societal needs, particularly with respect to sustainability and the circular economy. Success in this exploratory study could lay the foundations for expansion to disciplines and institutions beyond the pilot base.This project will investigate a systematic approach to equip graduates with the knowledge, skills, experience, and perspectives to meaningfully propose research aimed to better address important societal problems through the chemical sciences in a highly interdisciplinary manner. A new pedagogical framework for chemistry doctoral education will be developed and piloted that integrates important societal, economic, environmental, and governance issues with chemistry disciplinary education. This framework will involve multiple components, including: 1) a graduate-level team-taught interdisciplinary chemistry core course that integrates SEEG aspects to provide a foundation for understanding environmental sustainability and the circular economy; 2) a team-taught graduate course in Green Chemistry involving multidisciplinary instruction encompassing chemistry, economics, and social science; 3) a seminar program presented by a range of experts from academia, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector, who will also serve as mentors; 4) a requirement for the Ph.D. qualifying research proposal to include substantial SEEG components; and 5) a requirement that the doctoral dissertation include a chapter on posing SEEG-informed research questions. This project will challenge the traditional, disciplinary-focused, pedagogical paradigm through piloting a more holistic approach to education and professional development that is purposefully aligned with the heavily integrated and interdependent world in which we live.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.