THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF ENGINEERING

Section I - A Guide to Teaching the Ethical Dimensions of Science

This section of Ethics in the Science Classroon offers background information and teaching models, including an introduction to the case study approach, to teachers who wish to integrate ethics and values into their pre-college classrooms. Case studies can be found in Chapter 4.

• Chapter 1: How Ethics and Values Intersect with Science

  Assistance to teachers who wish to integrate ethics and values into their pre-college science classes. Chapter 1 is a discussion of a book that descibes the effect of the insertion of ethics/values into the teaching of science which rests on the assumption that ethics and values play a significant role in science.

• Chapter 2: What is Ethics? (Section I- A Guide To Teaching the Ethical Dimensions of Science)

  The teaching of ethics is particularly suited to the use of illustrative case studies. Such narratives can be used to present examples of a range of significant ethical issues related to some human enterprise and many of the complexities associated with each of the issues. The cases can be either fictional or they can be based on actual events. Chapter 2 discusses the definition of Ethics.

• Chapter 3: Teaching Ethics (Section I - A Guide To Teaching the Ethical Dimensions of Science)

  The teaching of ethics is particularly suited to the use of illustrative case studies. Such narratives can be used to present examples of a range of significant ethical issues related to some human enterprise and many of the complexities associated with each of the issues. The cases can be either fictional or they can be based on actual events. Chapter 3 discusses how to determine which department is best qualified to teach ethics in the classroom.

• Chapter 4: Case Studies (Section I - A Guide to Teaching the Ethical Dimensions of Science)

  The teaching of ethics is particularly suited to the use of illustrative case studies. Such narratives can be used to present examples of a range of significant ethical issues related to some human enterprise and many of the complexities associated with each of the issues. The cases can be either fictional or they can be based on actual events. Chapter 4 is a guide to case studies based on actual cases that discuss major ethical issues.

• Case Study 1: Overly Ambitious Researchers - Fabricating Data

  Case Study 1 of six cases presented during a Summer Institute instructional program. Case Study 1 discusses researchers and fabrication of data.

• Case Study 2: The Millikan Case - Discrimination Versus Manipulation of Data

  Case Study 2 of six cases presented during a Summer Institute instructional program. Issues related to the collection, treatment and presentation of scientific data.

• Case Study 3: The Tuskegee Syphilis Study

  The subject group was composed of 616 African-American men, 412 of whom had been diagnosed as having syphilis, and 204 controls. The participants were never explained the true nature of the study. Not only were the syphilitics among them not treated for the disease , but those few who recognized their condition and attempted to seek help from PHS syphilis treament clinics were prevented from doing so. A panel of prominent physicians was convened by the PHS in 1969 to review the Tuskegee study. The PHS in 1966, the panel's recommendation that the Study continue without significant modification was accepted.

• Case Study 4: The Search for the Structure of DNA

  A classroom lesson on Rosalind Franklin's unacknowledged contribution to the Watson-Crick DNA model.

• Case Study 5: The XYZ Controversy

  Case study of genetic screening and other applications of genetics and biotechnology research.

• Case Study 6: Love Canal

  Case study6 discusses individual, corporate and governmental responses to environmental and ecological concerns.

National Academy of Engineering

500 Fifth Street, NWWashington, DC 20001T. 202.334.3200F. 202.334.2290