Pixel International Conferences

Chemistry and Society is a compulsory discipline for the first year of graduation in Chemistry and an optional discipline for the third year of graduation in Biochemistry. In the last five years, it enrolled more than a hundred students in chemistry and the same amount of students in biochemistry, with and an average of forty students per year (this number is growing). The students chose their themes with some mediation from the instructor that derives a least a class on this and present various possibilities (e.g. [1-4]). Then, the students present a pitch with their chosen subject as in a scientific meeting. The instructor acts as a chairperson and there are discussions within the class. After these discussions, the students prepare and submit a revision article with a special format (similar to a scientific journal). The articles are distributed among the colleagues that act as anonymous reviewers. After that, the article is corrected by the author, following (or not) the suggestions of the anonymous reviewer, explaining their reasons, and emphasizing the alterations. The third-year students, act as more mature researchers for the younger ones in the presentations. All the articles and revisions are subject to plagiarism software. There are some lessons on finding scientific information, reading articles and books, presenting subjects, writing and revising articles, and other relevant subjects. The final marks are based on the presentation, the revision of the article, and the article itself. In the last five years, parallel to the obvious subjects of sustainability, green chemistry, polymers in society, chemistry and literature, cinema, and various types of arts, chemistry in the war, new materials and drugs, and chemistry in the kitchen, we had some disruptive subjects as the chemistry of hate (in opposite the usual chemistry of love), religious rituals, homeopathy, and others. All these subjects are treated scientifically, based on evidence, critical analysis of existing peer-reviewed articles, and the revision of the articles. Also, all this fitted easily when the classes were online. The presentations and discussions were made online. The articles and revisions are submitted in specialized platforms by the University of Coimbra, which sends them to plagiarism software automatically. The exchange of articles and revisions are made by the instructor that acts as an editor. The results are very good in terms of evaluation by the students and marks.

Keywords: Soft-skills, Chemical awareness, Writing and analyzing scientific documents.

References:

1. B. Salinger, Chemistry in the marketplace, 5th Ed. (Crowns Nest: Allen & Unwin, 1998).
2. C. H. Snyder, The Extraordinary Chemistry of Ordinary Things, 4th Ed. (Hoboken: Wiley& Sons, 2002)
3. J. Emley, Molecules at an exhibition, Rev. Ed. (Oxford University Press, 2001)
4. S.P. J. Rodrigues, Jardins de Cristais: Química e Literatura. (Lisboa: Gradiva, 2014)