TEACHING WATER QUALITY THROUGH TECHNOLOGY-ENHANCED LABORATORY MODULES IN UNDERGRADUATE BUSINESS EDUCATION

Issues of water quality and contamination related to business are often negatively and understandably associated with harmful industrial practices and regulatory violations. Providing business students with the opportunity to integrate a scientific understanding of environmental issues into a business curriculum is a tacit requirement for producing scientifically literate business leaders. Funded by an NSF-CCLI grant, this type of teaching innovation is happening at Bentley University, an institution that enrolls primarily business majors. Faculty collaborators are developing laboratory-based modules that use advanced technology to enhance student learning and apply basic science to real-world problems.

We present a description of one such module developed for a course in environmental chemistry, which focuses on water resources and their susceptibility to contamination. In a two-week module, students study how the chemical composition of water changes as it moves through the hydrologic cycle in a series of classroom and laboratory-based active-learning exercises. After a brief introduction to the unique properties of water and their importance to the movement and change of water at the Earth’s surface, students create microcosms of soils, aquifers, and landfills. Students then measure the physical and chemical changes in normal and acidic “rain” water after it falls on the simulated surfaces, using advanced analytical instrumentation, such as inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES).

The module was implemented and tested in three sections of Environmental Chemistry, a four-credit laboratory course that satisfies a general education science requirement at Bentley (one of two science and math courses). The course is also an introductory science course that counts toward a second, Liberal Studies Major in Earth, Environment and Global Sustainability that may complement a students primary business major. In addition to a pre- and post-test of content, formative assessments include box-model diagrams after Sibley et al. (2007) designed to improve student learning of basic physical chemistry principles associated with the hydrologic cycle.