Article Cite This: J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
Chemistry of Sustainable Products: Filling the Business Void in Green-Chemistry Curricula Ryan M. Bouldin*,†,‡ and Zoë Folchman-Wagner†,‡ †
Department of Natural and Applied Science and ‡Bentley Health Thought Leadership Network, Bentley University, Waltham, Massachusetts 02453, United States
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S Supporting Information *
ABSTRACT: There is a need for more courses that directly address the role business plays in the development of new products and technology. This is particularly true in the areas of green and sustainable chemistry where altruism is often not enough to overcome perceived increased cost. Chemistry of Sustainable Products is an undergraduate chemistry course designed for business students interested in the development of environmentally benign consumer products. It was designed to create more “pull to the market” for greener chemistry and materials by training the next business leaders in some of the foundational science behind safer products. The curriculum fuses introductory courses in general chemistry, material science, and sustainable business. The course utilizes the concept of intermolecular forces as a reoccurring theme to connect the topics of molecular interactions, material properties, toxicity, and product design. In addition to the fusion of business and chemistry, learning objectives for the course emphasize the ability to differentiate between scientific evidence and opinion, and the use of fact-based reasoning in communication. The course structure, rationale, and an initial assessment of learning are presented. KEYWORDS: First-Year Undergraduate/General, Nonmajor Courses, Interdisciplinary/Multidisciplinary, Curriculum, Consumer Chemistry, Green Chemistry
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INTRODUCTION Successful product development relies on teamwork and transdisciplinary collaborations among scientists, product designers, product managers, and many others. At a time of increasing material scarcity and greater consumer conscience, there is a growing need for product developers to integrate the concepts of Green Chemistry, Green Engineering, and Industrial Ecology to drive systemic change in product designs. Recently, Harvard Business School’s Future Economy Project identified through interviews with company Chief Executive Officers that there is a need for both tactical and systemic change if companies are going to adequately address large-scale sustainability issues. They noted that to do this, tools need to be developed for all stakeholders to manage their progress.1 Unfortunately, while businesses recognize social and environmental issues as important, only 10% feel they tackle these sustainability issues successfully.2 Further, there are significant growth opportunities for companies that establish business cases for sustainability, including safer chemicals and materials.3,4 Although there are many reasons for this, all too often when companies do try to integrate cleaner production methods, product designers and managers are stuck retrofitting a chemically driven process they have little control over or do not understand. This leads to the elusive search for “drop in replacements” that represent an “end of the tailpipe” approach © XXXX American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.
to sustainable-product development and can lead to unfortunate outcomes such as regrettable substitutions. Therefore, an intentional approach is needed so that all product-design team members can contribute and successfully collaborate on the creation of safer and higher performance products. The course Chemistry of Sustainable Products (CSP) was launched in spring 2016 to begin to address some of the challenges faced by future business leaders that occur at the interface of chemistry and business. The course is taught to undergraduates at Bentley University, where more than 90% of students major in a business area, such as accounting, finance, management, or marketing. CSP is a 4 credit-hour course that is offered in both the fall and spring semesters. It is typically taught at its maximum enrollment of 24 students each semester. Bentley utilizes a block schedule structure with each block being 1 h and 20 min. The course meets twice per week with one class covering a single block and a second class consisting of two consecutive blocks. The double-block meeting allows for the inclusion of longer laboratory experiments, akin to a traditional science-laboratory course. Received: August 1, 2018 Revised: January 25, 2019
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.8b00619 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
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Given the business focus of the students, the class is framed as a product-development supply chain that begins with molecules, proceeds to materials, and finally finishes with products. At each of these three steps, there are business decisions that must be made that will have ripple effects further up the supply chain. For instance, the selection of poly(vinyl chloride) as a component material may lead to future marketing disclosure concerning the presence or absence of phthalates in the final product. To date, we are unaware of any other published reports of general-chemistry or sustainable-chemistry courses designed specifically for business students. For business majors, there has been some effort to incorporate sustainability principles; however, these courses often take broad strokes in an approach to sustainability5,6 or focus on sustainable investing7 and do not emphasize foundational science knowledge. There are also several published examples of courses for nonscience and chemistry majors focused on topics in green chemistry and sustainability,8−11 but these appear to lack a consistent business context. The CSP course was therefore developed to fill a gap between courses that survey sustainability topics within a business context and courses that cover foundational chemistry knowledge. On a larger scale, there are many academic programs within the United States and abroad that offer dual majors in Chemistry and Business. Several educational programs have also been established recently that fuse innovation and green chemistry. These programs inspired our efforts in CSP by “creating more pull” for environmentally benign products and technologies.12 The University of CaliforniaBerkley’s Greener Solution program13 pairs graduate students and undergraduates with local businesses to provide authentic opportunities for students to implement greener material solutions. A similar program at the University of Oregon, the Tyler Innovation Greenhouse,14 utilizes the current enthusiasm for maker spaces to cross-pollinate design ideas between local artists, chemists, and entrepreneurs in an effort to prototype new innovative products. The National Science Foundation also supports several large research centers dedicated to innovation of chemistry processes and materials.
(2) to use data to construct an evidence-based position and communicate potential implications and outcomes, and (3) to identify components of an inquiry-based experiment that address a testable question.
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COURSE ORGANIZATION The course is divided into three different modules each taught with concepts and examples derived from green and sustainable chemistry at the interface of business and product development. Broadly defined, the modules could be described as molecules, materials, and product design. The topics covered in each section are by no means exhaustive of any of the subject areas, but enough depth is provided in each section for students to analyze and relate consumer-product properties and formulation considerations back to molecularlevel concepts. A copy of the most recent course syllabus, reading assignments, and critical-response prompts as well as a description of the custom textbook used in the course are included as Supporting Information. Molecules
The course utilizes an atoms-first approach that quickly builds over three to four classes to intermolecular forces. There is little emphasis placed on understanding molecular orbitals or stoichiometry in the course. There is a natural progression from atoms to bonding behavior to intermolecular forces that students grasp quickly. Furthermore, the course utilizes the topic of intermolecular forces and molecular attractions as a central theme. This allows for topics that will be covered later in the course, like structure−property relationships, polymer processing, molecule−body interactions, and toxic chemicals and endocrine disruptors, to relate to a common characteristic at the molecular level. The concepts from the molecule section are reinforced in the laboratory by building molecular models and comparing and contrasting the production of consumer products with disparate intermolecular forces (e.g., chapstick versus soap). The formulation of chapstick, which contains all hydrophobic components and takes only 10 min to mix, versus the more time-consuming and energetic saponification of vegetable oils into soap nicely demonstrates the complexities of balancing intermolecular forces in consumer products. In this example, the creation of chapstick merely requires the disruption of dispersion forces with heat to blend the formulation components; soap, in addition to the energy and mixing required for saponification, requires extensive mechanical energy to emulsify fatty acids with the aqueous sodium hydroxide solution.
Place within the Liberal-Arts Curriculum
Although Bentley University prides itself as a business school, students are still required to take a robust liberal-arts core of 46 to 47 credit hours and a minimum of an additional 15 credit hours of arts and sciences electives. The arts and sciences electives can be fulfilled by taking courses in History, English and Media Studies, Cinema, Communications, Computer Information Systems, Global Studies, Literature, Media and Culture, Modern Languages, Natural and Applied Sciences (NAS), Philosophy, Psychology, and Sociology. Most courses are 3 credit hours with the exception of laboratory-based NAS courses, which are 4 credit hours. For those fulfilling their liberal-arts science requirements, CSP may be the last science course they take. Given this context, the NAS Department at Bentley developed a set of generalized learning objectives for all students taking our courses. The learning objectives broadly apply to any student who is majoring outside of the sciences. These learning objectives are
Materials
The second portion of the course begins with a discussion of structure−property relationships in different materials. Using the materials science pyramid,15,16 students are introduced to the concepts of a material’s structure (as dictated by its bonding behavior), processing, properties, and performance and relationships among them. The stress-versus-strain relationship is used to further demonstrate how changing a material’s processing or structure alters its physical properties and product performance. During this section, students begin to see connections between choosing one material over another and how this choice may have further implications for their chemical supply chains. The example of polymer processing and its use of plasticizers is highlighted here to
(1) to distinguish between scientific evidence and social or personal explanations, B
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.8b00619 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
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Examinations
bring these concepts from the abstract to reality. Building from this example, students are then presented with a trade-off analysis where they must use material-selection charts to balance factors such as cost, strength, energy content, and recyclability.
There are three examinations given during the semester. The first two examinations come at the conclusion of the molecules and materials sections, and the third serves as a final examination. The first and third examinations are typically take-home and composed of roughly 10 multiple-choice questions and 8 short-answer essays of equal total value. Questions are designed to force students to access multiple sources of information and respond within the context of the information previously presented in the course. Students are provided up to 1 week to complete each examination. The second examination is in class. Examples of recent examinations are provided in the Supporting Information.
Product Design
The product-design section of the course begins with a discussion of how toxic chemicals in consumer products pose a threat to a company’s market share and the health of their workforce. Recent news stories highlighting the presence of phthalates in the food supply17 and flame retardants in childcare products18 and college dormitories19 present real case studies for students to analyze. Discussions of how the companies could address these challenges leads to practical tools currently used in the marketplace, such as Green Screen20 for chemical-alternative assessments21 and sustainable-productdesign initiatives like Cradle to Cradle.22,23 The complexity of material selection and chemical-list-management tools, with which all product-design teams grapple, are presented through a case study and webinar developed by HermanMiller.24 The course concludes with a brief discussion of the stage gate design process,25 house of quality,26 and how sustainability metrics can be integrated into business decisions at each design step.
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Laboratory
Laboratory experiments are designed to complement and demonstrate the topics discussed during lecture classes. At the beginning of each laboratory session, students are provided with important safety information as well as guided prompts that highlight the laboratory exercise’s learning objectives, its connection to other course materials, and its desired process outcomes. Other than this outline and a few open-ended, generalized instructions, in most experiments students are challenged to develop solutions solely through trial and error. As such, most of the experiments are designed to be exercises in supportive failure. Although students are notoriously adverse to the thought of failing, scientific literature suggest that failure is a vital component of learning.29 There is a need to place more emphasis on and provide more support for students engaging in the process of learning rather than evaluation of the final work product. To highlight this effort to students, laboratory exercises are graded solely on attendance and each student’s commitment to community (C2C) learning (a reframing of class participation to emphasize the importance students play in each other’s learning). A student who performs well in their C2C will exhibit leadership in organizing experiments, a willingness to ask questions, and a positive attitude toward the fusion of sustainability concepts into product design. Although the current grading rubric for C2C is cursory and based on faculty opinion, in the future we plan to implement a more rigorous and student-led scheme that follows Lyons’s recommendations.30
COURSE ASSESSMENT
Critical Responses
Students are required to write three persuasive papers or critical responses (CRs) that are predicated on using fact-based reasoning to advance a central argument. In two to three pages, the students must respond to a reading or video prompt and use scholarly references to advance one to two key points of their choosing. The primary goal of the CRs is to help students develop a powerful and convincing voice for themselves while writing in the third person; a style of writing that is effectively used in business, policy, and science advocacy. For example, in the first CR assignment of the term, it is typical for students to write sentences like, “It’s shocking the government allows companies to have phthalates in their products.” Through handwritten feedback and in-class discussion, we would like to see students transition to writing sentences more like, “Adolescents should be aware that their typical diet exceeds the Environmental Protection Agency’s safe reference dose of 20 μg/kg per day for phthalates.27” While both sentences express strong opinions, the latter does so in a manner that is persuasive and supported by scientific data. The CR prompts are assigned at the beginning of each semester and aligned with topics on the syllabus. Students are allowed to write about any aspect of the prompt, allowing them to explore their own interest in the topic, including applying their business skills in a scientific context. For example, in response to the New York Times article “The Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Worst Nightmare”,28 students responded with analysis on a wide variety of topics, including product liability, toxicity of perfluorinated chemicals, collective community action, and environmental regulations. Further examples of writing prompts are included on the course syllabus alongside the CR guidelines and grading rubric in the Supporting Information.
Integrated Research Experience
During the product-design section of the course, students are challenged over 3 weeks to develop and carry out experiments that develop a new material for a consumer product. During an initial class meeting, students are given a project description and then are expected, with guidance and as a class, to design a series of experiments that analyzes critical variables and demonstrates appropriate controls. Students are then randomly assigned a partner for the remainder of the project. After the initial meeting, class time is dedicated to material synthesis, characterization, and discussions on how to appropriately represent, visually or graphically, the data they collected. In each project, students create new materials or formulations, analyze their products with relevant scientific equipment, and evaluate their analytical results. Finally, students draft a scientific manuscript that describes their synthesis process and rationalizes their results in the context of the given application. All projects are based on green-chemistry methodologies and provide students with an authentic research experience that align with the faculty member’s field of research. One recent project on safer flame retardants was C
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.8b00619 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
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students in the life sciences, but it remains one of the few developed methodologies that broadly examines scientific literacy. The assessment was given at the beginning of the course prior to the presentation of any course materials and again during the last class meeting of the semester. Of the 24 students in the course, 18 completed both the pre- and postexaminations. Students correctly answered 74 ± 14% of the questions on the pretest and 73 ± 18% during the posttest. Of the 28 questions on the examination, only one reached statistical significance between pre- and posttests. In an effort to better align our assessment methodology with the specific learning objectives, a new assessment instrument is currently under development. An initial series of questions was developed within the NAS department at Bentley, chosen from the TOSLS and the Scientific Inquiry Literacy Test.33 Students were given the first iteration of this assessment during the spring 2018 semester. The assessment consisted of two sets of four multiple-choice questions aimed at learning objectives 1 and 3 and an open-response essay for learning objective 2.
continued after the course with an undergraduate from the class and led to a peer-reviewed publication.31 Course-Grade Distribution
Course grades are assigned according to the weights outlined in Table 1. There is a heavy emphasis on examinations because Table 1. Course-Grade Distribution and Weights Assignment
Percentage (%) of Final Course Grade
Two Examinations Final Examination Integrated Research Experience Critical Response Essays Commitment to Community Learning Laboratory Attendance
40 25 10 10 10 5
of the focus on concept application and to compensate for less emphasis on laboratory performance. After the first two examinations, students are given the opportunity to earn up to 50% of the points missed by correcting examination questions. Critical response essays are cumulatively worth 10% of the final course grade, but each response increases in value from 2 to 3 to 5%, respectively.
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CONCLUSIONS
Here we present a novel approach to teaching general chemistry and materials concepts in the context of business. The course is divided into three sections on molecules, materials, and product design, and intermolecular forces are used as a crosscutting concept to help students link molecular concepts to product performance. Through take-home examinations, critical writing responses, laboratory-based experimentation, and an integrated research experience, students are able to immerse themselves within sustainableproduct development and decision-making while remaining strongly rooted in foundational chemistry principles. The course was specifically designed to help undergraduate business students begin to understand many of the problems associated with the inclusion of toxic chemicals in consumer products. We hope that this educational approach will incentivize these future business leaders to adopt safer and greener chemistries and materials in future products.
Curriculum Alignment with Learning Objectives
The core learning objectives of the NAS department, as outlined above, were developed for the largely nonsciencemajor students at Bentley. Mapping of the department learning objectives to the course can be seen in Figure 1. The three learning objectives are assessed through the four assessment instruments discussed previously; examinations, critical responses, integrated research experiences, and laboratory experiments.
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INITIAL ASSESSMENTS OF LEARNING OBJECTIVES An initial assessment of learning was conducting during the spring 2017 semester using the previously published Test of Scientific Literacy Skills (TOSLS).32 The assessment was conducted prior to the development of the learning objectives presented in Figure 1. The TOSLS is more oriented toward
Figure 1. Course learning objectives and assessments. D
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.8b00619 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
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(12) Haack, J. A.; Hutchison, J. E. Green Chemistry Education: 25 Years of Progress and 25 Years Ahead. ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2016, 4 (11), 5889−5896. (13) Greener Solutions. Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry. https:// bcgc.berkeley.edu/greener-solutions/ (accessed Jan 2019). (14) Tyler Invention Greenhouse. 942O, Univeristy of Oregon. https://942olive.uoregon.edu/tyler-invention-greenhouse/ (accessed Jan 2019). (15) Bensaude-Vincent, B.; Hessenbruch, A. Materials science: a field about to explode? Nat. Mater. 2004, 3, 345. (16) Flemings, M. C. What Next for Departments of Materials Science and Engineering? Annu. Rev. Mater. Sci. 1999, 29 (1), 1−23. (17) Rabin, R. C. The Chemicals in Your Mac and Cheese. New York Times, July 12, 2017. (18) Stapleton, H. M.; Klosterhaus, S.; Keller, A.; Ferguson, P. L.; van Bergen, S.; Cooper, E.; Webster, T. F.; Blum, A. Identification of Flame Retardants in Polyurethane Foam Collected from Baby Products. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2011, 45 (12), 5323−5331. (19) Dodson, R. E.; Rodgers, K. M.; Carey, G.; Cedeno Laurent, J. G.; Covaci, A.; Poma, G.; Malarvannan, G.; Spengler, J. D.; Rudel, R. A.; Allen, J. G. Flame Retardant Chemicals in College Dormitories: Flammability Standards Influence Dust Concentrations. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2017, 51 (9), 4860−4869. (20) Green Screen Chemicals. https://www.greenscreenchemicals. org/ (accessed Jan 2019). (21) Chemical alternatives assessments; Hester, R. E.; Harrison, R., Eds.; Issues in Environmental Science and Technology; Royal Society of Chemistry, 2013; Vol. 36. (22) McDonough, W.; Braungart, M. Cradle to cradle: Remaking the way we make things; North Point Press, 2010. (23) Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute. https://www. c2ccertified.org/ (accessed Jan 2019). (24) Introduction to Life Cycle and Alternatives Assessment, 2015. G r e e n C h e m i st r y & Com mer ce Cou nc il . h t t p s : / / w w w . greenchemistryandcommerce.org/safer-chemistry-training/trainingwebinars/introduction-to-life-cycle-and-alternatives-assessment (accessed Jan 2019). (25) Cooper, R. G. Perspective: The Stage-Gate idea-to-launch processUpdate, what’s new, and NexGen systems. Journal of product innovation management 2008, 25 (3), 213−232. (26) Hauser, J. R.; Clausing, D. The House of Quality. Harvard Business Review, May 1988. https://hbr.org/1988/05/the-house-ofquality (accessed Jan 2019). (27) Serrano, S. E.; Braun, J.; Trasande, L.; Dills, R.; Sathyanarayana, S. Phthalates and diet: a review of the food monitoring and epidemiology data. Environ. Health 2014, 13 (1), 43. (28) Rich, N. The Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Worst Nightmare. New York Times, Jan 6, 2016. (29) Simpson, A.; Maltese, A. Failure Is a Major Component of Learning Anything”: The Role of Failure in the Development of STEM Professionals. J. Sci. Educ. Technol. 2017, 26 (2), 223−237. (30) Lyons, P. R. Assessing Classroom Participation. College Teaching 1989, 37 (1), 36−38. (31) Bouldin, R. M.; Xia, Z.; Klement, T. J.; Kiratitanavit, W.; Nagarajan, R. Bioinspired flame retardant polymers of tyrosol. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017, 134 (41), 45394. (32) Gormally, C.; Brickman, P.; Lutz, M. Developing a Test of Scientific Literacy Skills (TOSLS): Measuring Undergraduates’ Evaluation of Scientific Information and Arguments. LSE 2012, 11 (4), 364−377. (33) Wenning, C. Assessing inquiry skills as a component of scientific literacy. J. Phys. Teach. Educ. Online 2007, 4 (2), 21−24.
ASSOCIATED CONTENT
S Supporting Information *
The Supporting Information is available on the ACS Publications website at DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.8b00619.
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Course syllabus, schedule, reading assignments, criticalresponse prompts and guidelines, sample exams, and description of the custom course textbook (PDF, DOCX)
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*E-mail:
[email protected]. ORCID
Ryan M. Bouldin: 0000-0003-4512-9433 Notes
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We would like to thank our colleagues in the Natural and Applied Science Department for their support while we developed this course and Jay Friedlander at College of the Atlantic for his help crafting our thoughts on merging sustainability and business.
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REFERENCES
(1) Toffel, M., Henderson, R., Whelan, T., Winston, A. Future Thinking. Harvard Business Review, Dec 05, 2017. (2) Kiron, D.; Kruschwitz, N.; Rubel, H.; Reeves, M.; FuiszKehrbach, S.-K. Sustainability’s Next Frontier. MIT Sloan Management Review, Dec 16, 2013. (3) GM Makes the Business Case for Zero Waste, 2012. General Motors. https://media.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/news.detail.html/ content/Pages/news/us/en/2012/Oct/1019_Landfill-FreeBlueprint. html (accessed Jan 2019). (4) TruCost. Making the Business & Economic Case for Safer Chemistry: Report for the American Sustainable Business Council and Green Chemistry & Commerce Council; American Sustainable Business Council and Green Chemistry & Commerce Council, 2015. (5) Landrum, N. E.; Ohsowski, B. Content trends in sustainable business education: an analysis of introductory courses in the USA. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education 2017, 18 (3), 385−414. (6) Stubbs, W.; Cocklin, C. Teaching sustainability to business students: shifting mindsets. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education 2008, 9 (3), 206−221. (7) Schapper, J.; Stubbs, W. Two approaches to curriculum development for educating for sustainability and CSR. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education 2011, 12 (3), 259−268. (8) Haley, R. A.; Ringo, J. M.; Hopgood, H.; Denlinger, K. L.; Das, A.; Waddell, D. C. Graduate Student Designed and Delivered: An Upper-Level Online Course for Undergraduates in Green Chemistry and Sustainability. J. Chem. Educ. 2018, 95 (4), 560−569. (9) Gross, E. M. Green Chemistry and Sustainability: An Undergraduate Course for Science and Nonscience Majors. J. Chem. Educ. 2013, 90 (4), 429−431. (10) Marteel-Parrish, A. E. Teaching Green and Sustainable Chemistry: A Revised One-Semester Course Based on Inspirations and Challenges. J. Chem. Educ. 2014, 91 (7), 1084−1086. (11) Manchanayakage, R. Designing and Incorporating Green Chemistry Courses at a Liberal Arts College To Increase Students’ Awareness and Interdisciplinary Collaborative Work. J. Chem. Educ. 2013, 90 (9), 1167−1171. E
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.8b00619 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
