Chemistry knowledge is essential in addressing solutions to complex global challenges such as achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. However, current teaching methods in chemistry often lack connections to global issues; without explicit practice and assessment, students cannot be expected to make these connections. Systems thinking (ST) has been proposed as part of an approach that aims to examine complex phenomena from a holistic perspective to prepare future scientists for the work needed to address these emerging global issues.
While new ST resources have emerged to make ST implementation easier for educators, little is known about assessing ST skills in a chemistry context. We qualitatively investigated ST skills employed by 18 undergraduate and 6 graduate students who engaged in three ST tasks, involving the construction of a system map on a topic related to climate change. Eleven ST skills were assessed during our analysis. Our findings show that students readily demonstrated some ST skills without specific prompts, but also showed that certain skills need more explicit scaffolding in instruction, so that time for implementation can be used effectively and efficiently. This presentation will highlight findings from this exploratory study and will conclude with implications for researchers and chemistry educators who are interested in implementing ST.