CHALLENGES FOR CHEMICAL EDUCATION: TRAVERSING THE CHEMICAL SCIENCES / MATERIALS SCIENCE INTERFACE

It is somewhat of a paradox that although traditional boundaries of chemistry have diffused to embrace many new areas of chemical research activity and there has been increased interaction between the chemical manufacturing and processing industries, the concurrent recognition of chemistry as a 'molecular science' has been somewhat responsible for the demise of its 'central science' identity. Thus chemical education is challenged to embrace the so called 'super sciences' currently designated as materials science and bio-molecular science, which are now widely believed to be the dominant forces in scientific discovery. However, it is debatable whether chemical education has sufficiently advanced to embrace the diffusion of chemistry into the super sciences. It is evident that the traditional boundaries of chemical education have already diffused so as to reveal how core chemical concepts can be interpreted in terms of the connection between chemical reactivity and human activity. Also, chemical education supports the promotion of chemistry as a sustainable science primarily through the teaching of 'green chemistry' and the influence of chemistry in sustaining the environment. This paper discusses these knowledge diffusion processes and assesses the potential of chemical education to enable education in materials science by showing how the traditional (tertiary) 'Basic Chemistry' course can be adapted to achieve a materials science focus and emphasis.