Concretizing environmental stewardship through green chemistry integration in science instruction

• Main Author: Santos, Ronald G.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2015
• Subjects: Chemistry > Study and teaching; Environmental management; Science—Instruction and study; Chemistry
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_doctoral/455
• Institution: De La Salle University

Environmental stewardship (ES) was concretized through the design, implementation, and evaluation of a learning package on chemical reactions with the integration of green chemistry principles. Using pre-experimental one group pre-test posttest design, the efficacy of the learning package in terms of imparting among the students: (a) appreciation of science (b) awareness of and concern for the environment (c) increased understanding of scientific and environmental concepts and (d) willingness to actively participate in the ES advocacy of the school was measured in six intact classes (n=227) of a Catholic all-girls school in Pasig owned and administered by the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres during school year 2013-2014.An average normalized gain score of .16 for 203 students on a validated researcher designed unit test revealed low-level gain on students understanding of scientific and environmental concepts. Data gathered from 223 students using a validated tool to measure the attainment of goals a, b, and d revealed that 95 to 99% of the students agreed with all 15 statements in the tool.The low level gain in unit test scores may be due to the failure of the teachers to substantially use formative assessment data to address students difficulties in the unit and the test-taking fatigue experienced by the students at the closing of the school year. Expressed willingness to act for the environment, which was used in the research as a measure of Roths (1992) highest level of environmental literacy, implied that students have already gained some level of understanding of scientific and environmental concepts.The very high willingness of the students to actively participate in the ES advocacy of the school proved that the learning package was successful in concretizing the ES advocacy through green chemistry integration in science instruction.