Title: Chemistry Education in and for the Anthropocene
Abstract: The term Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) was coined in the 1990s, but has its roots back to the 1960s and 1970s. From the 1970s, it became clear that humankind was using resources too fast and did harm to the environment more than responsible citizens in the world should do. A lot happened since then, awareness about climate change, pollution of the oceans, or limitations in the availability of natural resources are only a very few examples of the unsustainable development in our all past. In the Agendas 21 and 2030 new goals were set up for life the world, international policy, and also for education. In this arena, new developments took place, new concepts were developed. The talk tries to identify the most eminent concepts that should drive chemistry education for the future. The discussion will be illustrated by recent examples putting additional foci into chemistry education for ESD and a more sustainable future in the Anthropocene.
Short Biography
Prof. Dr. Ingo Eilks FRSC is, since 2004, a full professor in chemistry education at the Institute for Science Education (IDN) at the University of Bremen, Germany. From 2023, he is additionally an adjunct professor for science education at Universitas Negeri Malang, Indonesia. Having initially been a grammar school teacher for chemistry and mathematics, he later engaged in the domain of chemistry education research and development. His research interests encompass socio-scientific issues-based science teaching, education for sustainable development, teaching and learning the particulate nature of matter, or cooperative learning, all for the high school level. For more than 20 years now, these interests have been deeply connected to cooperatively working with teachers following specifically adopted models of action research. Further research focuses teachers’ beliefs and learning as well as innovations in higher-level chemistry education. Ingo Eilks has written so far about 750 articles, chapters, and textbooks, or has co-edited different books and special issues. He received different national and international awards for research and teaching, among them the 2017 Award for the Incorporation of Sustainability into Chemical Education by the ACS or in 2025 a Festschrift by the Journal of Chemical Education.
Web: https://chemiedidaktik.uni-bremen.de/mitarbeiter/ingo-eilks/