STEM-Based Applied Organizational Sustainability Curriculum Development: Integrating Business, Climate Science, and the Natural Environment

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Science courses are rarely offered in business schools, and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) topics are seldom included into business courses. Yet integrating material about environmental sustainability into management and business disciplines would help to build a more capable workforce, one better equipped to meet the needs of the national economy now and in the future. The overarching goal of this three-year project is to develop and implement a STEM-based sustainability curriculum addressing the use and degradation of the natural environment, climate science, and humanitarian issues in the context of business education at Montana State University and the University of Arkansas. The project will develop five courses that will enhance student knowledge, develop STEM skills, and generate an awareness of issues and behavioral choices relating to sustainability and the environment. This curriculum will improve students' STEM literacy and their capacity to address environmentally driven sustainability-related business issues. This project will produce one of the first interdisciplinary business curriculums to integrate the natural environment and climate science with business and management. Benefits will include production of science-literate students who will be better prepared for real-world challenges facing the workforce.Responding to a need to integrate sustainability content into business and management programs, the research team will develop, implement, and evaluate innovative curricula at two public universities. The curricula will include five courses: (1) Applied Climatology, (2) Human Geography, (3) International Business, (4) Business and the Environment, and (5) Applied Organizational Sustainability. Curriculum development will use the Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation (ADDIE) model to guide the project's instructional system design and use the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to understand why student outcomes occur. Beginning in summer 2017, this project will: (1) develop a curriculum that integrates interdisciplinary STEM-based sustainability content into existing business courses, (2) integrate business content into existing STEM courses, (3) establish a stand-alone interdisciplinary STEM-based applied organizational sustainability course, and (4) rigorously evaluate course outcomes. The evaluation will include formative, process, and summative assessments employing both qualitative and quantitative methods. The project will use multiple assessment methods including formative pilot-testing with students, in-person instructor evaluations, a pre- and post-test at each university, and a counterfactual methodology to provide a comparison for each cohort (i.e., course group) that will be tracked on the same outcomes over the study period. The research team will also quantitatively document the success of the program at improving relevant student outcomes. Expanding the reach of STEM-based programs within universities will help to cultivate a more science-literate, diverse future workforce to meet short- and long-term business sustainability needs.