Ethics for first-year STEM: A risk assessment based approach
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Abstract
- This paper describes the development of a first-year seminar focused on the discussion of
ethical issues in engineering for STEM students. The seminar course is intended to provide a
broad introduction to ethics through discussions and writing assignments focused on case studies
of engineering catastrophes, meeting once a week for ninety minutes, as well as encourage
students in college level critical thinking skills. Involving first year students with both technical
and philosophical discussions, showing the broader reach of engineering, can be critical in the
retention of students to engineering as well as the translation of engineering ethics to other
STEM majors. The main goal of the seminar is to engage first year STEM students to discuss
ethics from an engineering perspective, give them tools beyond their intuition, and assist them in
their transition into collegiate level academic work. Students are introduced to a risk assessment
based approach to ethical decision making. This approach attempts to incorporate the basic
questions of risk-benefit analysis with information on the decision makers, constraints and
context, and implementation of the system. This simplified framework is employed to allow
students to more easily explore complex catastrophes from multiple points of view and draw
parallels with current technological issues, with these skills significantly improving over the
course of the semester.
| Title | Ethics for first-year STEM: A risk assessment based approach |
|---|---|
| Creator | Rossmann, Tobias |
| Publisher | ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition Proceedings |
| Academic Department | Mechanical Engineering |
| Division | Engineering |
| Organization | Lafayette College |
| Date Issued | 2015 |
| Date Available | 2015-06-30T13:26:22Z |
| Type | Article |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Engineering--Study and teaching (view authority ) |
| Engineering ethics--Study and teaching (Higher) (view authority ) | |
| Keyword | teaching and learning |
| course design | |
| Bibliographic Citation | Rossmann, T. (2015) "Ethics for first-year STEM: A risk assessment based approach." ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition Proceedings. Paper 11730. |
| Standard Identifier | Handle 10385/2012 |
| Permalink | http://hdl.handle.net/10385/2012 |
| Rights Statement |
In Copyright
|
| Rights Holders | American Society for Engineering Education |
Contains
| File | RossmannT-ASEEAnnualConferenceandExpositionProceedings-paper11730-2015.pdf | Uploaded 2019-10-20 | Public | Download |
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