DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATIONAL MATERIAL FOR THE SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN GREECE FOCUSING ON THE UTILISATION OF BIOMASS AS A RAW MATERIAL

Green chemistry as a new paradigm of chemistry accomplishes a fundamental and principal role that is essential to the critical pathway towards sustainability, that of prevention. Education is a key vehicle for the introduction of the twelve green chemistry principles in the general public. Thus, emphasis has to be placed on the introduction of these principles through their diffusion in all relevant school courses via the use of relevant educational material. The aim of this paper is the presentation of educational material developed for secondary schools in Greece focusing on the 7th principle of green chemistry, that of utilisation of renewable raw materials. At first, the role and applications of biomass as the key renewable material in the context of green chemistry are presented. Then the educational concepts on which the development of the material was based are presented and discussed, followed by the outline of the structure and the detailed presentation of the specific activities that the material is composed of. Finally, results of students' acceptance of the educational material are presented along with discussion and proposals for the better introduction of the developed material to the secondary education schools in Greece.