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Conservation Science Education Online (CSEO) is a new online resource that shares strategies for teaching science in art conservation and related cultural heritage fields. An overview will be given of how undergraduate chemistry curricula in the United States have used examples from cultural heritage. The field of art conservation will then be described with an emphasis on the science curricula taught in art conservation programs around the world. Challenges include relating theoretical learning to real-world applications and teaching scientific terminology and concepts to students who may have limited science backgrounds; as well, there is a lack of textbooks and resources with appropriate case studies. The newly launched CSEO online resource offers freely available, effective teaching methods in the form of modules developed by international educators in the field. The inaugural CSEO Conference 2022 served as an introduction to the online resource for a global audience and was the first dedicated conference to bring together heritage science educators to discuss challenges and teaching strategies with the goal of building such a resource. The conference facilitated discussions among participants about teaching strategies, with the intention that these topics would become modules for the online resource, available to all science educators.

Featured Application: Techniques described were here employed to identify herbs and spices used create an artwork dating to 1997. Analysis of the scented components of the art installation House of Hope by Montien Boonma, including eight bags of unlabeled or poorly labeled powder and five strands of aromatic beads, was completed to facilitate its display at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Though an olfactory experience is central to the piece, limited information was available concerning the origin of the object's scent. Identification of the aromas from the powders and beads, some of which were nearly 30 years old, was accomplished through visual assessment, attenuated total reflectance–Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), and static headspace solid-phase microextraction gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GCMS) and confirmed using controls. Challenges included spices that had lost some of their potency or become cross-contaminated. The contents of five of the eight bags of powder were successfully identified as black pepper (two bags), clove, turmeric, and white sandalwood (Santalum album). All beads contained nutmeg, peppermint, ginger, and turmeric, while licorice root, thyme, cardamom, and clove were noted in some. The beads were bound using pine honey, a unique type of honey produced by bees that feed on aphid excretions. Identifying the scented components informs current and future installations so that the artist's original intent is more closely approximated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]