| Overall Rating | Gold |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 67.20 |
| Liaison | Jessica Thompson |
| Submission Date | June 20, 2024 |
Northern Michigan University
AC-6: Sustainability Literacy Assessment
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
2.00 / 4.00 |
Jessica
Thompson AVP Sustainability People Culture & Wellbeing |
Does the institution conduct an assessment of the sustainability literacy of its students?:
Which of the following best describes the literacy assessment? The assessment is administered to::
Which of the following best describes the structure of the assessment? The assessment is administered as a::
A copy of the questions included in the sustainability literacy assessment(s):
A list or sample of the questions included in the sustainability literacy assessment or the website URL where the assessment tool may be found:
Students in the general education course, Sustainable Business are quizzed at the beginning of the semester and again at the end of the semester. The sustainability quiz comes directly from Peter McAteer's (2019) book: "Sustainability is the New Advantage: Leadership, Change and the Future of Business." The
A brief description of how the literacy assessment was developed and/or when it was adopted:
The sustainability quiz comes directly from Peter McAteer's (2019) book: "Sustainability is the New Advantage: Leadership, Change and the Future of Business." It was adopted in Fall 2021 and has been used every fall semester since then (2021, 2022, and 2023). The 10 questions are generic sustainability-issue related questions focused on very specific topics and global challenges.
- What percentage of global fish stocks are fully exploited
- On average, how many microplastics are in a square kilometer of ocean water?
- How many children aged 5-17 are trapped in child labor?
- What percentage of the global population live in extreme poverty?
- How many megacities have populations over 10 million?
- When was the last time that the earth had this much CO2 in the atmosphere?
- How many millions of people do NOT have access to clean water?
- How many millions of people do NOT have access to clean sanitation?
- How much of the world's topsoil has been lost in the last 150 years?
- How many Sustainable Development Goals were adopted by 193 nations in 2015?
A brief description of how a representative sample was reached (if applicable) and how the assessment(s) were administered :
The assessment is administered to all students in the general education course program, which averages 30 students per year (total of 96 have participated to date). The assessment is not administered to a representative sample of students, but it is an general education course with students from a variety of majors. The course is called "Sustainable Business" so the students who select this general education course might have a pre-disposition or pre-existing knowledge about sustainability.
The pre-test assessment is administered during the second regular class period of the fall semester and the post-test is administered in the last week of the semester. At total of 96 students have completed the assessment since its adoption and addition to the general education outcomes assessment in 2021.
A brief summary of results from the literacy assessment(s):
Students score an average of 30% accuracy on the pre-test and score over 75% on the post-test. The assessment is multiple choice, and over the course of the semester students learn the magnitude of some of these critical issues (e.g., access to water, sanitation, microplastics, poverty and child labor, etc.).
In a few instances, some students improve dramatically (jumping from 30% to over 95% accuracy), but the average improvement during a semester of discussions about critical sustainability issues leads to an average improvement of close to 50%.
Website URL where information about the sustainability literacy assessment is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.