Evaluating the\nEnvironmental Impact of Chemistry Education:\nA Pilot Extracurricular Activity for Undergraduate Students

Nowadays, discussing global environmental issues has\nbecome regularly\nincluded in STEM-based higher education, emphasizing the importance\nof the youth in finding <i>ad hoc</i> solutions for the\nclimate crisis. One of the most commonly applied strategies is promoting\nsustainable choices among students, especially linked to their lifestyle\nchoices, or implementing small changes to aim for large-scale cumulative\neffects. Herein, a learning and research activity designed for undergraduate\nstudents is presented, aimed at raising their awareness of a less\ndiscussed type of global warming contributors, namely greenhouse gases\n(GHGs), being a fundamental example of gaseous waste produced at universities\nas part of STEM education programs. In this extracurricular project,\na multidisciplinary group of students performed a series of real-time\nmeasurements of exemplary GHGs emissions during the chemistry-oriented\npractical courses taken by their peers. As a result, qualitative and\nquantitative information about the gaseous waste produced in the student\nlaboratories was obtained and linked to various laboratory activities,\nraising student consciousness about the frequently neglected gases\nproduced in the laboratory that also contribute to the environmental\ncrisis. This research activity enables students to apply analytical\nchemistry to evaluate their own chemical footprint in the laboratory.\nFurthermore, this project aims to illustrate the importance of engaging\nstudents in extracurricular learning and research activities.