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

Teaching green chemistry at Monash University started in earnest in 1999 wi th the launch of a 12-lecture final year undergraduate course. The course w as designed to introduce students to the field of green chemistry. The stud ents had no prior knowledge of the field or indeed what green chemistry mea nt. The course covered a definition of green chemistry, historical issues, and challenges, together with an introduction to the principles and tools o f green chemistry, evaluating the effects of chemistry and technology, gene ral areas of green chemistry, and presenting examples of successful and dev eloping green chemistry technologies. Several general references were used, although specific examples were from the primary literature. Another featu re of the course was the analysis of recent papers. In addition, experiment s linking into the course have been developed, and there are plans for post graduate training, professional development, and community outreach involvi ng postgraduate candidates.