Teaching Photochemistry: Experimental Approaches and Digital Media

In this paper we give an insight into results from our curricular innovation research which aims at integrating photochemistry in university and school curricula. We have been exploring experimental approaches and developing teaching materials for more than 20 years and most of our experiments and teaching materials have been digitalized and made available in German and English as open educational resources (OER) on our website. The addressed photochemical content can be connected to well‐established subject content at school and university level chemistry, but their theoretical interpretation and the understanding of their applications go well beyond this. However, primarily they should motivate learners to, even after they leave school and university, continue to work on the investigation and development of sustainable processes and materials based on the use of (solar) light. Spot on! Teaching photochemistry via experiments and digital media makes photochemistry stimulating and understandable for today's students at schools and universities. In this sense, a great variety of teaching experiments has been developed to convey basic principles of photochemistry to students. To visualize underlying processes and to promote a better understanding, videos, animations and e‐books have been produced as open educational resources supplementing learning and teaching materials. This is meant as a contribution to facilitate the integration of photochemistry into chemistry curricula.