2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This paper details the integration of engineering ethics in a first-year, first-semester engineering course with the theme of sustainability. The cornerstone course teaches engineering design in a hands-on fashion with student groups tackling design projects that aim to address sustainability issues on campus. Previously, engineering ethics was introduced separately during a stand-alone and disconnected “ethics week”. This paper will provide details regarding the current implementation of ethics content, which is delivered in parallel with project progress and more closely relates to the design projects. Specific approaches include in-class team activities, case study review, individual scenario assignments, a team-based ethics simulation (previously developed and presented at ASEE), design project reflections, discussions of ethics through the lens of the three pillars of sustainability, and an individual final paper related to an on campus sustainability ethics scenario. In addition to providing an overview of ethics activities and assignments, this paper will compare course-level student learning outcomes between the current and prior years and how content in the course affected students’ perception of engineering ethics. We expect that by more closely integrating ethics content with the student projects, students will engage more deeply with ethics and appreciate how engineering ethics affects everyday engineering practice, thus improving the self-reported learning outcomes of the course.