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ERIC Number: EJ1443220
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024-Oct
Pages: 8
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0021-9584
EISSN: EISSN-1938-1328
Teaching Practice on the Anaerobic Degradation of Biodegradable Plastic Products
Chang Chen; Yan Jin; Guangqing Liu
Journal of Chemical Education, v101 n10 p4290-4297 2024
Given the severe pollution caused by traditional plastics, biodegradable plastic products (BPPs) have received great attention and are appearing in people's lives in the form of packaging bags, tableware, etc. Whether a wide variety of BPPs can truly degrade depends on the environment. Aerobic composting is the arbitration method to evaluate the degradability of BPPs in a premarket review, so only the aerobic degradability of BPPs can be guaranteed. Anaerobic digestion has become an irreplaceable part of the global carbon cycle and a mainstream technique to dispose of organic wastes. However, little attention has been given to the anaerobic degradation of BPPs, which may cause environmental pollution if BPPs are not degraded within a short time period. Students are not aware of these issues. Therefore, the teacher carried out teaching reforms in biochemistry course by designing anaerobic degradation of commercially available BPPs as a laboratory exercise for undergraduate students to form a correct understanding of the actual anaerobic degradation performance of BPPs, establish a more comprehensive theoretical knowledge framework of catabolism in biochemistry course, and train their hands-on ability and operation skills. This paper provides an introduction to the experimental design and teaching process of the anaerobic degradation of BPPs, and the results show that the degradation degree and rate are closely related to the components of BPPs. The results of the quizzes and questionnaires show that teaching reform is not only beneficial for deepening students' impression and understanding of anaerobic catabolism from ubiquitous BPPs in everyday life but also helpful for promoting their environmental awareness by selecting and using BPPs with better degradability. This teaching reform offers references and guidance for the teaching practice in courses like biochemistry, environmental microbiology, environmental chemistry, and waste treatment.
Division of Chemical Education, Inc. and ACS Publications Division of the American Chemical Society. 1155 Sixteenth Street NW, Washington, DC 20036. Tel: 800-227-5558; Tel: 202-872-4600; e-mail: eic@jce.acs.org; Web site: http://pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: Teachers
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A