Collaborative Research: Broadening the Fusion of STEM and Business Curricula in Undergraduate Sustainability Education

该项目旨在通过开发和实施融合STEM和商业观点的可持续性课程，为STEM扫盲的国家利益服务。该项目的总体目标是提高学生的准备，以解决复杂的社会问题，需要应用环境和经济概念。 该项目涉及来自Bentley大学，Wittenberg大学和北方伊利诺伊大学的不同STEM和商业学科的24名教师的合作。 专注于两个可持续发展的挑战，这些教师将协同和迭代设计24个模块化的跨学科案例研究。这些跨学科的案例研究将融合STEM和商业视角，有可能帮助STEM和非STEM专业的学生更有效地理解和管理可持续发展问题。该项目的评估/评价专家将衡量跨学科案例研究对学生学习和观点的影响，以及对教师合作和教学实践的影响。 该项目的目的是，它所开发的跨学科课程材料将可供任何机构使用和传播。 因此，该项目有可能加强对大量本科生的可持续性教育，并有助于在商业环境中教育具有科学素养的民众，这可能特别有价值。该项目旨在转变教师对跨学科教学和协作课程开发的看法，以经过测试的课程模块的形式创建和传播可交付成果，推进与可持续发展相关的学生学习成果，并更好地理解支持跨学科转型变革的拟议模型的结构，过程和态度。在先前工作的基础上，该项目将在每个机构建立STEM和业务部门教师的地方学习社区，以设计和实施案例研究模块。每个模块将包含一个共同的练习，针对不同学科需求的特定课程练习的几个选项，以及一个评估计划。一个传播门户网站将由卡尔顿学院的科学教育资源中心主办，该中心还将主要负责评估学生的学习成果。 与拟议的变革理论相一致的混合方法外部评估将侧重于教师的观点和机构转型，包括社交网络数据。该项目由NSF改善本科STEM教育计划：教育和人力资源（IUSE：EHR）资助，该计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。该项目属于开发和实施层，以及机构和社区转型轨道。 通过机构和社区转型轨道，IUSE：EHR支持在高等教育机构和学科社区转型和改善STEM教育的努力。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project aims to serve the national interest in STEM literacy by developing and implementing sustainability curricula that fuse STEM and business perspectives. The overall project goal is to improve the preparation of students to address complex societal issues that require application of environmental and economic concepts. The project involves the collaboration of 24 faculty members from diverse STEM and business disciplines at Bentley University, Wittenberg University, and Northern Illinois University. Focusing on two sustainability challenges, these faculty will collaboratively and iteratively design 24 modular transdisciplinary case studies. These transdisciplinary case studies, which will fuse STEM and business perspectives, have the potential to help STEM and non-STEM majors understand and manage sustainability problems more effectively. The project's assessment/evaluation experts will measure impacts of the transdisciplinary case studies on student learning and perspectives, as well as on faculty collaboration and instructional practices. The project intends that the transdisciplinary curricular materials it develops will be accessible and transportable to any institution. Thus, the project has the potential to enhance sustainability education for a large number of undergraduates and to help to educate a scientifically literate populace in the business environment where it may be especially valuable. The project aims to transform faculty perspectives about transdisciplinary teaching and collaborative curriculum development, create and disseminate deliverables in the form of tested curricular modules, advance student learning outcomes relevant to sustainability, and develop greater understanding of structures, processes, and attitudes that underpin a proposed model for transdisciplinary transformational change. Building on prior work, the project will establish local learning communities of faculty from STEM and business departments at each institution to design and implement case study modules. Each module will contain a common exercise, several options for course-specific exercises focused on different disciplinary needs, and an assessment plan. A dissemination portal will be hosted by the Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College, which will also have primary responsibility for assessment of student learning outcomes. A mixed-methods external evaluation aligned with a proposed theory of change will focus on faculty perspectives and institutional transformation, including social network data. The project is funded by the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program: Education and Human Resources (IUSE: EHR), which supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. The project is in the Development and Implementation Tier, and in the Institutional and Community Transformation Track. Through the Institutional and Community Transformation track, IUSE: EHR supports efforts to transform and improve STEM education across institutions of higher education and disciplinary communities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.