In October 2015, the ‘The Hague Ethical Guidelines’ were adopted by OPCW and were endorsed by IUPAC May 4, 2016. In line with that development, attention has been focused on formulating core values for chemists, focusing specifically on the ethical aspects of the use of chemical knowledge, as well as the use of chemicals within the environment. There are many examples of misuse of chemical knowledge, as demonstrated in the TV series ‘Breaking bad’ focusing on the production of illicit drugs. Within chemical industry the use of (micro)plastics, the use and production of pesticides is another issue. Within education codes of academic conduct have always played an important role. Recently more attention has been given in education to ethical use of chemical knowledge and the relationship between the use of chemically produced compounds, and the production of chemical compounds and the environment. This is demonstrated for example by the development of ‘green’ chemistry.
A special issue devoted to education and outreach activities concerning ethical issues in chemistry is planned for Chemistry Teacher International. We are looking for good practices in the teaching and learning about ethics related specifically to the use of chemical knowledge, and the use of chemically produced compounds. This may be related to the use and production of chemical weapons, but also to the use of chemical knowledge related to the production of illicit drugs and undesired consequences of the production and/or use of materials and agrochemicals. The responsibility of each individual having obtained chemical knowledge should be made clear.
We are looking for articles of about 5000 words describing ways in which these issues are introduced in the classroom. In the article an analysis and evaluation of the effects of the introduction should be given. The article should be an invitation for other lecturers to use the described activities as a starting point in their own situation. In addition a review of literature about teaching ethics in chemistry will also be welcomed.
You are invited to submit an abstract of no more than 500 words to https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/chemistryteacher no later than 1 March 2024. When you submit your abstract, you will be asked to indicate the type of manuscript; choose special issue and then choose ‘teaching ethics and core values in chemistry education’. There will be no Author Processing Charges when you publish in this special issue. This special issue will be published in Dec 2024 and will constitute an outcome of IUPAC project 2023-026-2-050.
A committee will assess the abstracts and about 12 authors will be invited to write an article. Deadline for submitting articles will be 1 July 2024. For more information contact Jan Apotheker, [email protected]
Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash
Release published in Chem Int Apr 2024, p. 31