Translating an In-Class Deliberation Module to a Two-Year College Introductory Chemistry Course

In general chemistry, instructors have valuable opportunities to connect foundational chemistry concepts to larger societal issues early in a student's academic career. Deliberation, a facilitated conversation that considers different perspectives on complicated and multidisciplinary issues, is one method to achieve this and has previously demonstrated positive effects at four-year institutions. However, the content demands within general chemistry can make this goal difficult to attain and two-year colleges can have a distinctly different environment from four-year colleges. Here, we discuss the transferability of a deliberation module about environmental contaminants to a Foundations of Chemistry course at a two-year college, including training recommendations, implementation suggestions, and positive outcomes. Student participants in the 2 h activity reported a high-quality experience during the deliberation, including considering others' perspectives, and they showed motivation to take action to improve water quality. Moreover, the instructor for the course noticed that the activity helped to build community within the class and develop connections between current societal issues and the material they were learning in the course, in this case ion solubility.