Teaching green chemistry. Third-year-level module and beyond

Teaching green chemistry at Monash University started in earnest in 1999 with the launch of a 12-lecture final year undergraduate course. The course was designed to introduce students to the field of green chemistry. The students had no prior knowledge of the field or indeed what green chemistry meant. The course covered a definition of green chemistry, historical issues, and challenges, together with an introduction to the principles and tools of green chemistry, evaluating the effects of chemistry and technology, general areas of green chemistry, and presenting examples of successful and developing green chemistry technologies. Several general references were used, although specific examples were from the primary literature. Another feature of the course was the analysis of recent papers. In addition, experiments linking into the course have been developed, and there are plans for postgraduate training, professional development, and community outreach involving postgraduate candidates.