Weaving together climate science and chemistry education in an African context

Abstract

Integrating meaningful contexts into chemistry education offers potential benefits for both students and instructors. Weaving together the teaching and learning of chemistry with the rich context of climate science provides opportunities for educators to increase student motivation, enhance classroom experiences and equip students to use fundamental understanding of science and problem-solving skills to begin to address some of our planet’s most important and complex challenges. Improved climate literacy is especially important to African students and teachers because of Africa’s vulnerability to climate change. This paper describes the development of a new set of interactive, web-based resources, Visualizing and Understanding the Science of Climate Change (www.explainingclimatechange.com), which explores various climate topics and illustrates ways in which connections between chemistry and climate change can be drawn out in chemistry courses at the secondary and post-secondary level. Dual goals are to improve chemistry conceptual understanding and to empower African students to understand and effectively respond to the climate challenges currently facing their continent. [AJCE, 3(2), June 2013]