Figure 2 - uploaded by Peter Mahaffy
Content may be subject to copyright.
![Planetary Boundaries Framework, from the King's Centre for Visualization in Science (KCVS) planetary boundaries interactive learning resource at www.planetaryboundaries.kcvs.ca, building on and adapted from the Stockholm Resilience Centre (Steffen et al., Science 2015 or [13]).](profile/Peter-Mahaffy/publication/355401789/figure/fig2/AS:1083681217228801@1635381144265/Planetary-Boundaries-Framework-from-the-Kings-Centre-for-Visualization-in-Science.png)
Planetary Boundaries Framework, from the King's Centre for Visualization in Science (KCVS) planetary boundaries interactive learning resource at www.planetaryboundaries.kcvs.ca, building on and adapted from the Stockholm Resilience Centre (Steffen et al., Science 2015 or [13]).
Source publication
A 3-year IUPAC project Systems Thinking in Chemistry for Sustainability: Toward 2030 and Beyond (STCS 2030+, IUPAC Project #2020-014-3-050) [1] launched in late 2020 is breaking important new ground in addressing chemistry’s orientations, roles, and responsibilities in the 21 st Century and helping to map out implications for chemistry education, r...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... variables for each of the earth system processes, many of which are directly related to the production and measurement of chemical substances in the atmosphere, hydrosphere or lithosphere, have been identified and quantified for seven of the nine earth system processes. As Figure 2 from an interactive electronic version of the framework created by the King's Centre for Visualization in Science (KCVS) [14] shows, the numerical value of the control variable indicates with a green/yellow/ red colour scheme whether that earth system process is still in a safe operating zone (below the planetary boundary), a zone of increasing risk, or a zone of high risk as a result of human activity. ...
Similar publications
This study aims to determine the profile of the argumentation ability of undergraduate chemical education students. The research was conducted by giving 3 questions based on non-routine problems. In these questions, questions are given that demand statements of claims, data, warrants, backings, qualifiers, and rebuttals. The answers of 47 students...
Green Chemistry (GC) integration in environmental education has improved
understanding of managing pollutants and their impacts. However, the extent of integration in the science curriculum is not widely known in the Philippines. In this convergent mixed method design, the researchers determined the SHS Chemistry teachers’ (n=30) knowledge, percept...
Citations
... Calls to humanize (Sjöström & Talanquer, 2014) and reorient (Mahaffy et al., 2018) chemistry education have included a focus on developing systems thinking in educators and students alike, as a "holistic approach for examining complex real-world systems" (York et al., , p. 2742. For several years now, many in the chemistry education community have called for, implemented and evaluated approaches to Systems Thinking in Chemistry for Sustainability (STCS) (Mahaffy et al., 2021). Advocates for more explicitly incorporating systems thinking into chemistry education (and education more broadly) have argued, among other reasons, that it enhances student cognitive and emotional capacities ; improves student motivation to learn (Yoon et al., 2018); focuses students on developing and demonstrating critical thinking skills (Verhoeff et al., 2008); helps students and educators interpret and unpack complexity (York & Orgill, 2024); and develops motivations to utilize their emerging chemistry knowledge when address sustainability challenges (Schultz et al., 2022;York & Orgill, 2024). ...
Lithium’s role in the global green energy transition provides an engaging context to visualize the interconnectedness of chemistry to seismic shifts taking place in society. Lithium has seen a dramatic increase in utilization, but given lithium’s current low rates of recyclability, this development is exacerbating the e-waste problem. Equally important, we posit that lithium extraction, from either brine or ore, and the associated impacts on the environment and local communities should not be so easily decoupled from the shift in human behaviors causing its demand. Presented here is a mapping activity that was trialed in professional learning workshops organized in New Zealand for secondary/high school chemistry teachers. In their mapping activity response, the teachers were able to connect typical school chemistry content (batteries, chemical processes) with environmental (planetary systems) and social, economic, and ethical considerations (useful products, unintended consequences, inequity in access to water) of the ongoing electrification of society. The teachers indicated a positive intention to utilize the activity, or one similar with a different chemical process or product, in their own classrooms. A school-ready version of the activity is provided in the supplementary information, which was revised based on feedback from the teachers attending the workshops.
... The literature on education for sustainable development calls for pedagogical innovations that provide interactive, experiential, transformative, and real-world learning that mobilizes critical and systemic thinking in the context of sustainable development [20,22,[26][27][28][29]. It is expected that this change in viewpoint will inspire researchers and educators of all disciplines to further the development of pedagogies and teaching resources for sustainable development. ...
Higher education has an essential role in the promotion of sustainable development. For this to be possible, the use of methodologies in accordance with principles of sustainability must be fostered. This article theoretically analyzes the characteristics that make service-learning an effective tool in education for sustainable development. In order to understand the challenges involved in its implementation in higher education, first of all, the concepts of sustainable development and sustainability are defined. Next, the use of education for sustainable development and curricular sustainability in higher education is contextualized. Finally, the pedagogical proposal of service-learning is addressed and linked to the principles of sustainability in the university environment. To conclude, in relation to prospective applications of service-learning, it is argued that it is an optimal methodology to educate about, for, and from sustainability and that its institutionalization in higher education is highly desirable.
... [6]. A description of this project was recently published in the 2021 Issue 4 of Chemistry International [7]. ...
... The IUPAC working groups are also developing resources to equip educators and students to use systems thinking approaches. 10,16 ■ THE PLANETARY BOUNDARIES FRAMEWORK: AN ...
... An ongoing project by a working group of the IUPAC STCS-2030+ task force is mapping chemistry curriculum topics to each of the Earth system processes in the framework. 16 The curriculum web view currently published online is a preliminary version showing only a few of the many connections, and it will be updated online over the next 18 months as the IUPAC task force continues its work. This view is also constructed with an interactive forcedirected graph to visualize the web of curriculum connections that the chemistry education community can use to relate traditional curriculum topics in foundational courses to the web of Earth system processes. ...
Sustainability has a molecular basis that suggests a central role for chemistry in addressing today's challenges to Earth and societal systems, and this role requires educators to see chemical reactions and processes as integral parts of dynamic and interconnected systems. Despite this prospect, few accessible resources are available for students and educators to facilitate systems thinking in chemistry for sustainability. We have developed an interactive digital learning tool (https://planetaryboundaries.kcvs.ca) based on the Planetary Boundaries framework, which uses interactive visualizations to help users better understand Earth system sustainability challenges and helps chemists and educators connect substances, reactions, and chemistry concepts to sustainability science. The tool highlights the fundamental role that chemistry plays in regulating the individual biophysical Earth system processes and in determining their control variables. It incorporates key features of a systems thinking framework by illustrating the dynamic interconnections among the processes and their control variables and demonstrates change of the Earth system over time. Finally, the interactive tool provides educators with accessible entry points to support the integration of chemistry curriculum content with sustainability considerations. © 2022 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.
... An ongoing project by a working group of the IUPAC STCS-2030+ task force is mapping chemistry curriculum topics to each of the Earth system processes in the framework. 16 The curriculum web view currently published online is a preliminary version showing only a few of the many connections, and it will be updated online over the next 18 months as the IUPAC task force continues its work. ...
Sustainability has a molecular basis that suggests a central role for chemistry in addressing today’s challenges to Earth and societal systems, and this role requires educators to see chemical reactions and processes as integral parts of dynamic and interconnected systems. Despite this prospect, few accessible resources are available for students and educators to facilitate systems thinking in chemistry for sustainability. We have developed an interactive digital learning tool (https://planetaryboundaries.kcvs.ca) based on the Planetary Boundaries sustainability framework, that uses interactive visualizations to help users better understand Earth system sustainability challenges and helps chemists and educators connect substances, reactions, and chemistry concepts to sustainability science. The tool highlights the fundamental role that chemistry plays in regulating the individual biophysical Earth system processes and in determining their control variables. It incorporates key features of a systems thinking framework by illustrating the dynamic interconnections among the processes and their control variables and demonstrates change of the Earth system over time. Finally, the interactive tool provides educators with accessible entry points to support the integration of chemistry curriculum content with sustainability considerations.
In the past 15 years, we've experienced an unprecedented series of crises, including financial (2008), health (2020), and most recently the supply chain disruptions and the energy emergency in Europe, caused by the war in Ukraine (2022). On top of that, climate change still poses a serious threat to our lives and our planet. These interconnected challenges create tremendous societal problems and compromise the viability of the chemical industry in an environment of price volatility and high inflation. Thus, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) has launched a series of actions to tackle this and raise awareness of the role of chemistry in solving our major threats. Since 2019, IUPAC has identified the “Top Ten Emerging Technologies in Chemistry” to connect chemical researchers with industry, bridging the gap between science and innovation, maintaining the current competitiveness of the chemical industry, as well as tackling our most pressing global challenges.
In the past 15 years, we've experienced an unprecedented series of crises, including financial (2008), health (2020), and most recently the supply chain disruptions and the energy emergency in Europe, caused by the war in Ukraine (2022). On top of that, climate change still poses a serious threat to our lives and our planet. These interconnected challenges create tremendous societal problems and compromise the viability of the chemical industry in an environment of price volatility and high inflation. Thus, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) has launched a series of actions to tackle this and raise awareness of the role of chemistry in solving our major threats. Since 2019, IUPAC has identified the “Top Ten Emerging Technologies in Chemistry” to connect chemical researchers with industry, bridging the gap between science and innovation, maintaining the current competitiveness of the chemical industry, as well as tackling our most pressing global challenges.
Chemistry has played a central role over the past century in the large-scale anthropogenic transformation of matter into diverse materials that have improved the quality of life for many people on our planet. The lens of chemistry is fundamentally necessary to understand the resulting flux of chemical substances in Earth system processes, the unintended consequences of those transformations, impacts on food supply security, water and energy concerns, ways to mediate and adapt to climate change, loss of biodiversity, and how best to build and maintain resilient ecosystems. Reactive nitrogen compounds (Nr) such as ammonia from the industrial fixation of atmospheric nitrogen exemplify both the central importance of chemistry in providing food and meeting basic human needs for a global population of 8 billion people and the sustainability challenges arising from the intended and unintended consequences of large-scale human production and release of Nr. The chemistry profession can use systems thinking (ST) tools and the Planetary Boundaries framework to understand and address challenges facing the entire Earth system resulting from the altered biogeochemical flows of nitrogen. This analysis has compelling priority due to the roles Nr currently plays in global food production and ammonia's potential role as an energy carrier for large-scale human activities in a future low carbon economy and as a domestic refrigerant while hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) are being phased out. As this example illustrates, navigating the complex benefits and challenges large-scale human activity imposes on Earth system processes requires the convergence of chemistry research, industrial practice, and education. Since the chemical reactions and processes that transform matter are foundational to sustainability challenges, this perspective maps, through a chemistry for sustainability pyramid, ‘multiple levels at which chemistry can contribute toward the emergence of sustainability of the Earth system'. We conclude with recommendations for steps the profession of chemistry can take to make education relevant and engaging and to connect chemistry research and practice to cross-disciplinary sustainability challenges, thereby transforming the science of transformation of matter toward sustainability.
Recent assessments alarmingly indicate that many of the world's leading chemicals are transgressing one or more of the nine Planetary Boundaries, which define safe operating spaces within which humanity can continue to develop and thrive for generations to come. The unfolding crisis cannot be ignored and there is a once-in-a-century opportunity for chemistry -- the science of transformation of matter -- to make a critical difference to the future of people and planet.
How can chemists contribute to meeting these challenges and restore stability and strengthen resilience to the planetary system that humanity needs for its survival? To respond to the wake-up call, three crucial steps are outlined: (1) urgently working to understand the nature of the looming threats, from a chemistry perspective; (2) harnessing the ingenuity and innovation that are central to the practice of chemistry to develop sustainable solutions; and (3) transforming chemistry itself, in education, research and industry, to re-position it as 'chemistry for sustainability' and lead the stewardship of the world's chemical resources. This will require conservation of material stocks in forms that remain available for use, through attention to circularity, as well as strengthening engagement in systems-based approaches to designing chemistry research and processes informed by convergent working with many other disciplines.
We review the musical conservatory as a model for educators to learn how to enhance admissions, instruction, and assessment in liberal arts collegiate settings. Although conservatories serve primarily students wishing to enter musical careers of various kinds, the model on which they are based can, in many ways, serve any student and any school. We review some of the history of conservatories and describe how they work. Next, we explore how they develop a wide range of technical, cognitive, affective, and conative skills. Finally, we show how the skills they develop are important not just for music students but also for all students who will enter the world of work and face difficult and unexpected adaptive challenges.
