Education for Sustainable Development

The Education for Sustainable Development: Agents for Change (ESDAC) programme provides an over-arching framework and directive to align education practice and learning environments to the 17 UN sustainable development goals. This ensures our community of scholars and learners become agents of change, and realise active contributions and impacts across the 4-dimensions of sustainable development, shaping graduates and scholars as discipline-led educators and global citizens.

For more information contact Dr Lorraine Gibson van Mil: lorraine.gibson@strath.ac.uk.

Pedagogy and Practice

Development of modern, innovative, and creative programmes that deliver teaching platforms and assessment methods that critically align with intended learning outcomes.

Sustaining and enhancing high-quality accredited programmes by co-creation and inclusive design of modules and assessment, The Royal Society of Chemistry has funded our investigation into the impact of mental health in undergraduate laboratories through the WELLChem project. We are also interested in diagnosing and ameliorating misconceptions in science education.

Example publications

• Introducing Elements of Inquiry and Experimental Design in the First Year of an Undergraduate Laboratory Program
• Is mathematics to blame? An investigation into high school students' difficulty in performing calculations in chemistry

Careers Education

Within the department, we focus on the development of graduate attributes, employability skills, and student career pathways. We also have an interest in the career pathways of high school students and have been funded by the Royal Society of Chemistry to deliver several projects in this area, such as ChemDiverse and ChemSTEP.

Example publications

• Use of a one-page reference guide in on-campus timed exams: reflections and assessment of its impact on student in a post-open-book world
• Introducing graduate employability skills to year 1 chemistry students: reflecting on impact 
• Advancing sustainable practice in an UG inorganic chemistry experiment
• Examining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student employability skills – an employers’ perspective
• ChemDiverse: A Chemistry Careers Activity Showcasing Diversity
• Empowering students by enhancing their employability skills
• Students’ reflections on an employability skills provision
• Decision-making factors of female A-level chemistry students when choosing to study a degree in chemistry

Conference presentations on scholarship, pedagogy and education research

Methods in Chemistry Education Research (MICER2025)

• Student Perception, and Upskilling: GenAI in Chemistry, L Gibson van Mil, I. Maxwell, and M. J. Dufton, Poster at MICER2025, RSC Interest Group in Chemical Education Research, Napier University, May 2025.

Variety in Chemistry Education and Physics Higher Education Conference (ViCEPHEC) 

• 2024 - ChemQuest – The Education for Sustainable Game, L Gibson van Mil, D Stevens, S. Sprick, P Thomson,  Poster at ViCEPHEC24, University of Surrey, 29 to 30 Aug.
• 2024 - Sustainable! – Impact of Laboratory Practice and Student Reflections, L Gibson van Mil, H Magowan, C Dodds, Poster at ViCEPHEC24, University of Surrey, 29 to 30 Aug.
• 2024 - Empowering Students to Critically Reflect on Career Pathways, D Ramsay and L Gibson van Mil, Poster at ViCEPHEC24, University of Surrey, 29 to 30 Aug.
• 2023 - The one-page reference guide (OPRG), supporting students in a post-open-book world, Oral Presentation at ViCEPHEC23, University of Durham, Lorraine T Gibson van Mil, P Thomson and G Shermer, 24 to 25 Aug.
• 2022 - Examining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student employability – an employer’s perspective, S Walker, L. T. Gibson and F. Scott, Advance Higher Education Teaching and Learning Conference, August. 
• 2022 - Delivering Educational Excellence at a Distance: Forensic Science Fundamentals.  F Casali and L. T. Gibson van Mil. European Academy of Forensic Science Conference, Stockholm, 30 May to 3 June.  
• 2022 - At Home Lab Kits: An Effective Practical Teaching Tool?, L. T. Gibson van Mil, D Bannerman and P. Thomson, presentation at ViCEPHE22, 23 to 24 Aug.

Science Communication and Outreach

Many of our staff are dedicated outreach and communication enthusiasts, but we also disseminate our innovative practices to the wider academic community.

Example publications

• Science podcasts: analysis of global production and output from 2004 to 2018
• How Safe Is Your Playground? Analyzing Soil in Scottish Schools through a University Outreach Project
• Preparation of a Polymeric Foam: An Activity Designed to Increase Teachers’ Awareness of the Utility of Condensation Polymerization