Summary

My Spring 2023 and Fall 2022 Spreadsheet Applications in Business and Research Methods in Business students gave generously of their time, patience, creativity and collaborative struggle to test four new lessons I developed. These lessons are set in the context of Environmental Sustainability and Governance. Making sure that future generations have a better quality of life because the corporate and government sectors are working together to reduce climate change and social inequities could be very important to my students. Here are four sample lessons that I believe will motivate students to exceed their own expectations for learning Excel, Tableau and VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) using Environmental Sustainability Case Studies.
Climate Change Excel Dashboards
My Excel Dashboards climate change lesson tasks students with creating visualizations using data from the Bronx Botanical Gardens budding and leaf color change (phenology) repository for Red Maple trees. This data has been collected for decades by other Citizen Scientists. We will create Excel Dashboards using budding dates and daily temperatures recorded in Central Park to find out how warmer weather impacts phase changes for this species.
Collecting Genetic Data using Visual Basic for Applications Forms Created by Students
I believe that racial strife will diminish if the next generation of Americans understand that racial differences are insignificant. Strengthening our students’ resolve to strive for a more open, peaceful society is an ultimate goal of these lessons. Students will investigate their phenotypes, the physical manifestation of their own personal genetic traits, and make their own data. We then make a chart that includes everyone’s individual traits that may reveal how genetically similar classmates are. Then we will create Visual Basic for Applications data entry forms for capturing human traits.
Creating a taxonomy for tagging greenhouse gas emissions disclosures and learning Calcbench
Students create a simple taxonomy of greenhouse gas emissions, tag data and create human readable, machine readable documents using CDP.org repository data. They also learn how to use Calcbench, a program that facilitates benchmark comparisons of tagged SEC disclosure documents.
Balancing Triple Bottom Line Criteria using Solver Lesson Plan
The study of Environmental Sustainability gives the corporate sector strategies for improving the quality of life on earth. Students use Solver, an optimization program to pick a portfolio of stocks that have successfully balanced the Triple Bottom Line Goals of: making a profit, protecting the environment and enhancing the prospects of people who are often denied the prosperity they deserve. If we continue the misguided squandering of natural resources, and disregard for the economic disparity caused by racism, sexism and greed, efforts to heal the world may be delayed until it is too late.
Two Fall 2022 Spreadsheet students who tested these lesson plans were with me and the rest of the research team when we presented our lesson plans during the Illusion of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access Conference at the CUNY Graduate Center. Michelle Liang, a research team member and one of my CIS 2200 students Bryan Lara appear in the picture with me. Sean Gonzalez, one of the research team members appears with me and Dr. Elys Vasquez-Iscan in the video below.