Innovative lesson plans in chemistry education for broadening sustainable society

Expanding Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is one of the big challenges for education in Japan. Science educators are also tackling the link between science education and ESD, and focusing on promoting students’ understanding of key concepts for sustainable development and enhancing their abilities in making appropriate judgments on science, technology, society, and environment (STSE) issues. We developed chemistry lesson models for upper secondary school that reflect the viewpoints of ESD. The lesson topics cover bioenergy like biodiesel, biological resources like chitin and chitosan, and metal resources like iron. After conducting trial lessons for students in both Japan and Korea, we evaluated the lesson with the outlined objective of promoting students’ abilities to make appropriate judgments based on their knowledge of science. The results show that the lessons achieved a measure of success, and also provided an excellent opportunity for the students to consider the possibilities for establishing a sustainable global society.