This project will provide an interactive educational experience for business students that relates their science electives directly to their business curriculum through technology-enhanced, problem-based learning. The project will (1) advance the pedagogic integration of Earth and environmental sciences and related courses into a business curriculum by developing new trans-disciplinary active-learning course modules through a series of summer workshops for science and business faculty; (2) create new technology-enhanced class and laboratory activities by incorporating recent university investment in environmental and geochemical field and laboratory analytical instrumentation; and (3) assess the effectiveness of the curriculum enhancements during and following implementation of the technological innovations, multi-disciplinary course enhancements, and new active-learning course modules. The learning modules will address sustainability themes such as water resources, global climate change, environmental hazards, energy and mineral resources, and agriculture, and thus will provide a number of opportunities for interdisciplinary problem solving. Through a series of formative evaluations, the course modules will be refined and improved. Ultimately, the course modules will be made available to the larger science and business communities through educational websites. Outcomes and experiences will be communicated to the broader science and business education communities at national conferences and through educational publications. The project will not only enhance science learning and knowledge retention and improve the scientific literacy among future business leaders, but it also has the potential to increase the appreciation and understanding of science and the scientific method among business faculty, as well as to increase the appreciation of business issues among scientists.
Bentley University is an atypical environment for STEM education. Sometimes described as an "undergraduate business university within a liberal arts college", over 90% of Bentley undergraduate students major in business degree programs. Without traditional science majors, which are present at most liberal arts colleges, our challenge as science faculty is to contextualize core science concepts and educate business students whose STEM educational experience may be limited to two general education electives, including one introductory lab science and one intermediate science or math elective. The Natural & Applied Sciences Department therefore has the critical mission to provide core science education for business students, so that they can become effective business leaders, informed policy makers, and scientifically literate citizens within our expanding technology-intensive economy, During the period of this NSF-funded program, Bentley University faculty from the Natural & Applied Sciences (including geology, chemistry, biology, physics), Accountancy, Economics, and American Government departments collaborated in summer workshops to develop a series of course modules that engage students in exploring complex societal problems through a trans-disciplinary lens. Through our new course modules, we have built on the demonstrated effectiveness of technology-enhanced, trans-disciplinary, problem-based educational integration at Bentley by enhancing the Earth and environmental sciences educational capabilities and building science-business linkages. These efforts will benefit Bentley students over the long term and are applicable to the broader Earth sciences education community. In addition to the newly developed, implemented, and tested course modules, interdisciplinary faculty engagement in pedagogic development has led to an enhanced level of faculty interaction that continues to promote integration of environmental science and business in a variety of courses across the curriculum. Our faculty workshop in year 1 was focused on the development of modules that integrated our new analytical instrumentation suite into inquiry-based exploration of disciplinary problems in the courses Environmental Chemistry, Principles of Geology, Water Quality, Green Biology, Science of Sustainability, and Water and the Environment. The modules explored issues associated with electronic waste, urban runoff, landfills and waste disposal, groundwater-surface water interactions, sustainable agriculture, and related problems. The course activities engaged students in scientific inquiry and problem solving by generating analytical data, analyzing and interpreting original data sets, and communicating results through team-based laboratory activities. The modules have been shared with colleagues at other institutions and have been presented at national conferences. The Year 2 faculty workshop engaged faculty in science and business disciplines to create the transdisciplinary module, "Will Corn Ethanol Fuel U.S. Energy Needs: A Multidisciplinary Exploration of a Complex Problem", which explores the issue of corn ethanol from both disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives. The central module has been used in courses including Environmental Chemistry, Principles of Geology, American Government, Macroeconomics, Natural Resource Policy, Environmental Economics, Ecology, Environmental Physics, and Science of Sustainability. This novel approach to integrated learning presents students in different courses of with a large, complex dataset showing corn production for human food, animal feed, industrial uses, imports, exports, and ethanol, plus total corn production in the U.S. from 1960 to 2013. Students plot the data set, and observe trends, perform calculations, and generate hypotheses to explain their observations. After completing the common ethanol module, students then explore disciplinary concepts associated with issues raised by the corn ethanol data in their participating courses. For example, students in Environmental Chemistry produce ethanol from corn and from sugar cane, and then they evaluate the efficiency of the manufacturing process associated with each feedstock. Students in Environmental Economics learn to do cost-benefit analysis and evaluate externalities and unintended consequences in the context of corn production for food vs. fuel. Students in Public Policy courses learn about the legislative process and the role of stakeholders in passing the federal Energy Independence & Security Act of 2007, which specifies the renewable fuels standard for the U.S. Science of Sustainability and Ecology students explore issues of sustainable agriculture, food production, and water resources related to corn ethanol. Assessment of student learning and interdisciplinary integration was the most complex challenge of the project. Our assessment efforts tested the degree to which students could demonstrate the following competencies, after completing the integrative ethanol module: Describe the interdependence of the natural sciences and social sciences in decision-making for business, society, and the environment. Provide examples of ways in which human modification of complex natural and established social systems may lead to unintended consequences. Explain ways in which human decision making and natural systems impact one another on various time scales. Evaluate proposals for moving society toward greater sustainability. Based on measured student outcomes, business students who participate in the course modules developed through this project have gained greater appreciation for the integrated nature of the environment, society, and the economy, which has important implications for advancing sustainability initiatives nationally and internationally.
