Abstract

VALIENTE-BARDERAS, Antonio  and  GALDEANO-BIENZOBAS, Carlos. Study on the economic value of chemistry professionals. Educ. quím [online]. 2012, vol.23, n.3, pp.383-389. ISSN 0187-893X.

In today's world to make right economic decisions is becoming increasingly necessary for the exercise of the profession. But every economic decision is based on the values and knowledge that the individual possesses. This article discusses the economic subjects and skills that should have a professional chemist. For this, we have made a survey among students of the Faculty of Chemistry of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in Ciudad Universitaria campus, to investigate what knowledge they have about energy costs and services. With the results of this survey we can make recommendations to the careers of the chemistry curriculum's makers. It was found that most students have no idea of the costs that materials or energy have, or neither are aware of costly research and even the cost involved in the teaching of these careers. Obviously they also have no idea of the impact of chemistry on the economy, the dependence of modern society on energy, materials and services that are obtained from the chemical, petrochemical, food, metallic, cosmetic, pharmaceutical industries, etc. And therefore they do not realize the costs that pollution has and the associated cost to fight against it.

Keywords : Chemistry; economics; values.