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Cursus: SK-BCHDO
SK-BCHDO
Science and Technology for sustainable development
Cursus informatie
CursuscodeSK-BCHDO
Studiepunten (EC)7,5
Cursusdoelen

The course contributes to the student knowledge of sustainability and ethics. The student will obtain an understanding on how science and technologies can contribute to sustainability and on how to assist sustainable decision making in research and development. This course contributes to the cross- cutting key competences that chemistry professionals must have regarding critical thinking and sustainable practices.

The objective of the course is to increase your insight into the possibilities for and limitations of using science and technology to take on the sustainability challenge.

After completing this course:
• you will understand how science and technologies can contribute to sustainable development
• you can address, debate and analyse the ethical implications of case studies of sustainability science and technology
• you will be able to perform a sustainability assessment for a product, service or technology
• you will be able to conduct project work in a team, in the field of science, technology and society
• you will be able to write a scientific report and effectively communicate sustainable decisions based on your research results

The following academic skills will be obtained:
• Project work
• Writing a research paper
• Oral presentations and debate
• Team work

 
 
Inhoud
Science and Technology play a key role in virtually all products and processes in our society. Natural resources are extracted and converted into various products that are used to meet the wide range of our energy and material needs. There are degrees of freedom in the choice of raw materials, processes and products. Research results in a constant flow of new opportunities to meet energy and material needs. In other words, there are a growing number of options for the raw materials and processes to be used. Consumer preferences, markets and production costs determine to a large extent which processes, raw materials and products are used. This is a process that can be steered to a limited extent (e.g. by government). Over the past few years sustainable development has developed into a framework within which this steering takes place. Against this background, we shall study a number of technical options in the course Science and Technology for Sustainable Development. This course is divided in two parts or modules: 1 Sustainability project and 2 Ethics of sustainable development.

Part 1: Sustainability project
In project groups of 6-8 students, you will analyze a concrete product or technological option, which may be part of a strategy aimed at sustainable energy and material supply. Examples of such alternatives are the use of biomass for the production of fuel, e.g. ethanol and methanol; the sustainable use of fossil fuels; efficient use of materials (e.g. recycling); and the use of renewable materials, e.g. for the production of novel bioplastics.

During the first two weeks of the module, introductory lectures are given to support the project work (8 weeks). These lectures, combined with tutorials, provide the basics on environmental and economic assessment, together with efficient team work. You will be expected to apply these skills when working on the project. The following themes will be discussed:
• Background of Science and Technology for Sustainable Development – what is sustainable development
• Environmental assessment – how to perform a first environmental assessment of a product or a process through life cycle assessment;
• Economic evaluation – how to assess economic viability and life cycle costs;
• Philosophy will be used to train argumentation and debating skills as well as to add ethical reflection in the assessment of technologies.

The project addresses technological, economic and environmental aspects that are relevant to the introduction of technological options. It is part of the project work to scope the problem, to formulate the research questions (including the choice of concrete sustainability assessment criteria), to conduct a literature survey, to search data and to perform calculations and qualitative analyses in order to answer the research questions. You will present the research questions, approach, results and conclusions in two plenary presentations, once in an early phase of the project and once more at the final stage. You will also prepare a report, which represents the main deliverable of this course.

Part 2: Ethics for Sustainable Development
Technology is more than technology. Technology has an impact on society and one can always ask: is it a good or bad impact? Some fundamental (philosophical) questions are: Why do we need technology? And: What is the benefit of this particular technological asset? The deep environmental crisis, which we are facing up right now, is caused by technology (or isn’t it?): without fossil fuels, the impact humans have on the planet would be considerably smaller. Ethical reflection about the impact and purpose of technology is of fundamental importance. This includes the role, which scientists and academics play in society. One question one can pose is: am I part of a path towards sustainability, or am I part of the problem of unsustainable development?
There is a strong and widespread belief in technological fixes (technofix) of all our (environmental) problems. If there is a problem, then technology will fix it, but what are the arguments for this faith that technoscience will save us?
In this module we will reflect on the ethics of sustainable development using concept from ethics and especially environmental ethics.
Technocrats and engineers who are involved should also be able to argue about what they are doing and why. It is not enough to explain how technology works, but scientists should also be able to debate technoscience in public. Debating is not so easy as it seems. But it can be practiced and skills can be improved. That is what we will on in this module.

Critical thinking
Critical thinking is much more difficult than we generally think. We tend to overestimate our critical thinking skills. First we have to understand what our limitations and weaknesses are, then we can try to work to overcome these using tools and training. One such tool of critical thinking is to be familiar with fallacies and to recognize them in debates and arguments, and, of course, to avoid them in your own argumentation.
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