Conference Session

Engineering Ethics Division Technical Session

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Martin S. High, Oklahoma State University; Scott D Gelfand, Oklahoma State University, Department of Philosophy; Ronald Steve Harrist Ph.D., Oklahoma State University; Shelia M. Kennison, Oklahoma State University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

demonstrate why people act unethically. After a discussion of each video, each individualstudent is guided through a two-part exercise. The first part, developing a Personal InventoryReport, helps the student engage in self-reflection in order to determine what sorts of situationsthe student might find ethically challenging. In the second part of the exercise, the studentdevelops a personal plan (Adaptive-Strategies Report) addressing what strategies they might usein order to increase the likelihood that they will act ethically in challenging situations (that is, thesituations arrived at while developing the Personal Inventory Report). Page

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics Division Technical Session

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Carla B. Zoltowski, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Patrice Marie Buzzanell, Purdue University, West Lafayette; William C. Oakes, Purdue University, West Lafayette

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

making utilizing theinstrument. Traditionally, engineering curricular approaches to ethics have been case-based orhave centered around lecture and discussions about ethical frameworks. While necessary, suchapproaches can be supplemented by individual assessments of students’ ethical reasoningabilities and reflective activities about the tasks. Specifically, we address curricular interventionsin multidisciplinary project teams focused on real world applications. These interventions Page 23.1350.3leverage the utility of engineering ethical reasoning models and instruments into curricula. Wefocus on the EERI but recognize that similar models and

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics Division Technical Session

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rigoberto Chinchilla, Eastern Illinois University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

draw the linebetween the need of qualified personnel from the private sector reflected in our curriculumdesign and the need to develop pure critical thinking skills and general abilities in engineeringand technology. More than that, there is no study of how the corporate demands might affect theacademic freedom of our instructors. At what point does teaching based on specific corporatedemands compromise the need to teach general skills that can be used at any company withproper training? How do we know if the skills we are teaching based on corporate demands are Page 23.294.3the set of skills these students will need if they move out of the

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics Division Technical Session

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David K. Ware; David J. Ahlgren, Trinity College; Harvey F. Silverman, Brown University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

excited about asserting and defending theirviewpoints during the lecture, and it is not uncommon for students to continue conversationswith the lecturer after the lecture is concluded.The vast majority of classes appear to reflect a spectrum of moral/ethical sophistication amongthe students – ranging from those who have clearly given considerable thought to the generaltopic of ethics, to those for whom the subject of ethics is relatively undeveloped. Such adiversity of familiarity with ethics may be somewhat reflective of ethical awareness among thepopulation at large. There was only one instance of a lecture in which the vast majority ofstudents in the class, as reflected in their discussion comments, clearly exhibited a striking lackof

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics Division - Technical Session

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jodi Reeves, National University; Larysa Nadolny, Iowa State University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

instructional designers. Survey questionsincluded open-response, yes/no, and 4 and 5 point Likert scale items. The survey results were Page 23.547.4analyzed using descriptive statistics as well as Pearson’s Correlation to indicate relationshipsbetween survey questions and mode of course delivery. We collected additional informationfrom students in the form of a student self-reflection as an extra credit assignment after theactivity was completed and the final report turned in.Results and DiscussionThe students in both courses were overwhelmingly positive about the educational value of thisactivity, with only 10% indicating that the activity was “not

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics Division Technical Session

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rebecca A Bates, Minnesota State University, Mankato; Michael C. Loui, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

, honesty and truthfulness, organizational communication, ownership, qualitycontrol and product liability, public service, responsibility, and gender issues.1The session allows for a class-length experience, followed by a 30-minute period to reflect onand discuss approaches to incorporating ethics discussion in classes, methods for supportingstudent discussion and evaluation of the experience. During the class experience attendeesinteract with the sample teacher as they either hope or expect their students to participate(modeling student behavior). To prepare for this, the discussion leader encourages the attendeesto observe the process while reflecting on what experiences may or may not work in their ownclassroom.The goal of this paper is to

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics Division Technical Session

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Justin L Hess, Purdue University, West Lafayette

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

taught from the very beginning of our program To increase the ethical and moral education of the students through internal reflection and a Gil-Martín et al. Spain free election Hoole, Hoole Sri Lanka To use human rights as a religiously neutral basis for teaching engineering ethics Iino Japan To learn who engineers are and the world context of engineering work Wareham, New To participate in a general discussion of ethical theories, using these to explain the behaviour Elefsiniotis, Elms Zealand of participants, during a 2-hour workshop To recognize and analyze ethical

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics Division Technical Session

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mona Itani, American University of Beirut

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

the movie(s) by holding discussion sessions (held by the instructor, assistant, oramong students themselves) for those videos that had a pertaining assignment. Moreover,the instructor provided detailed assignment questions and requirements that directlytargeted the course objectives covered by the watched videos. This role was reflected Page 23.1193.5slightly by the students’ perceptions to the importance of holding post-video discussion sessions and by their performance on the written assignments. However, the analysis of this role will not be analyzed in depth in this study as it is beyond the main scope. Before responding to the questionnaire

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics Division Technical Session

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

William J. Schell IV P.E., Montana State University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

importance of issues in the case ranging from potential impacts on career Page 23.723.7path to popularity with coworkers. The ESIT was first deployed near the beginning of thesemester, prior to beginning any instruction on ethical issues, and again at the conclusion of thecourse. Additional ESIT data was collected from a group of IE freshman and seniors at theuniversity to understand any potential differences in these populations compared to the studygroup.Qualitative data was collected primarily through instructor reflection on the quality of the studentdiscussion regarding ethical issues. The most striking example of this data involves the use of

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics Division - Technical Session

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Frank E Falcone, Villanova University; Edward F. Glynn P.E., Villanova University; Mark Edward Graham, Villanova University; Mark Doorley Ph.D., Villanova University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

paramount in attaining this objective, and thus the cases are meantto provide the professional ethicists with critical information that will be used to structure ourongoing educational efforts with engineering professors. In addition, after reflecting on thesuccesses and failures of a two-day ethics workshop for engineering professors held two yearsearlier, the ethicists became convinced that the case method approach represented the mostpromising avenue for equipping engineering professors to teach ethics across the curriculum,and that subsequent workshops would rely heavily on this approach. So the inclusion of cases inthe survey was also intended as an introduction, albeit a brief one, to the types of situations thatwill be staple components of