For Szymanski, the award is further validation of Bentley’s longstanding efforts to integrate STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and business education. In 2019, Bentley and two partner institutions — Wittenberg University, a small, private liberal arts college in Springfield, Ohio, and Northern Illinois University, a large, public research institution in DeKalb, Illinois — received a five-year, $1.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop, implement and evaluate curricula to address global sustainability issues. Categorized by the United Nations into 17 distinct Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), these issues include poverty, gender equality, climate change and other “wicked problems” — a term used to indicate issues so complex, there’s no easy way to solve, or even uniquely define, them. A daunting proposition to be sure, but one Szymanski feels can be achieved by “reshaping the way we educate the next generation of decision-makers.”
As lead principal investigator for the project, Szymanski has coordinated the efforts of 53 faculty members from Bentley and its partner universities to develop and evaluate innovative, interdisciplinary and sustainability-focused educational materials. Collectively known as BASICS (Business and Science: Integrated Curriculum for Sustainability), it currently consists of two distinct course modules — one focused on water quality, the other on developing a circular economy — that are available to educators from other institutions and can be modified for use in any discipline.
To date, Szymanski estimates that more than 1,000 students from Bentley, Wittenberg and Northern Illinois University have experienced the BASICS modules, which have been incorporated into more than 30 different courses, ranging from Business Analytics and Cultural Anthropology to Principles of Microeconomics and Human Biology. He notes that all modules have been evaluated by the Science Education Research Center (SERC) at Carleton College and have demonstrated strong learning outcomes for students: pre/post survey responses indicate students uniformly identify more fields as being important to tackling sustainability problems after completing a module.
“It’s been amazing to see them have these lightbulb moments where they grasp the interconnectedness of the SDGs and realize that no single discipline has all the answers,” Szymanski explains, noting several instances where students with no prior interest in the topic leave the courses feeling “empowered to find ways to incorporate sustainability in their careers.”
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