2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Board 210: Bringing Engineering Ethics Education into the High School Curriculum

Presented at NSF Grantees Poster Session

This paper presents the progress made in the first two years of a five-year NSF ER2 (Ethical and Responsible Research) project on ethical and responsible research and practices in science and engineering undertaken at a large public university in the southwestern United States. Overall objectives of the project include: 1) conduct a survey of incoming freshmen college students to assess their ethical research competency and self-efficacy at the beginning of their tertiary education and during their senior-level capstone course; 2) evaluate the ethical research competency and self-efficacy of university students and identify any significantly contributing factors to develop an intervention plan to improve their ethical research competency (ERC) and ethical research self-efficacy (ERS) levels; 3) develop learning materials on topics related to ethical STEM research and practices and integrate them into undergraduate curriculum in multiple engineering disciplines; 4) provide enrichment experience in ethical STEM research and practices to high school teachers.

Prior research shows that there is a lack of empirical work done with respect to engineering ethics education at the tertiary level. There is an even greater lack of ethics at the secondary level. According to a prior study, the authors saw significant improvements in ethical judgement and epistemological beliefs related to ethics as a result of incorporating ethics content into a high school course; these improvements were assessed using essays in response to ethical prompts. Other studies revealed a significant lapse in ethical practices in students’ work at the high school level. Researchers also point out that students who are able to make ethical decisions in schools are more likely to perform better academically than their peers. To that end, the objective of this paper is two-fold. First, it presents a snapshot of survey results of freshmen, seniors, and the capstone courses as stated in the above-mentioned objectives. Secondly, it discusses the summer enrichment program for high school teachers. A self-efficacy assessment of teachers (pre- and post-enrichment experiences) is presented in detail. In addition, the teachers’ work during the summer, including their sample lesson plans are discussed. Lastly, the paper also includes the challenges with the current survey instrument and how the research team is modifying the instrument to aid the overall objectives of the project.

Authors

Dr. Michael Johnson http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5328-8763 Texas A&M University [biography]

Dr. Michael D. Johnson is a professor in the Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution (ETID) at Texas A&M University. He also serves as interim associate provost for faculty success and interim associate vice president for faculty affairs. He briefly served as the acting department head of ETID. Prior to joining the Provost’s team, Dr. Johnson was associate dean for inclusion and faculty success in the College of Engineering. Before joining the faculty at Texas A&M, he was a senior product development engineer at the 3M Corporate Research Laboratory in St. Paul, Minnesota. He received his B.S. in mechanical engineering from Michigan State University. Dr. Johnson received his S.M. and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Johnson’s research focuses on production economics, engineering education, and design tools. Dr. Johnson has over 100 peer reviewed publications and several patents. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and industry.
Prof. Amarnath Banerjee http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9814-0989 Texas A&M University [biography]

Dr. Banerjee is a Professor in the William Michael Barnes ’64 Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Texas A&M University since 1999. His research interests are in modeling and analysis of complex systems and processes, simulation and visualization, and their applications in manufacturing, healthcare, energy, and information systems. He teaches a number of courses in these areas at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and has developed several of these courses. He is currently leading the effort in designing a new undergraduate program in Data Engineering. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE). He served in the Board of the Computer and Information Systems Division of IISE, serves as an Associate Editor of IISE Transactions on Healthcare System Engineering, and is an ABET Program Evaluator for Industrial Engineering.
Dr. Bimal P. Nepal Texas A&M University [biography]

Dr. Bimal Nepal is a Don A Rice Professor and Interim Department Head of the Department of Engineering Technology at Texas A&M University. His research interests include the integration of supply chain management with new product development decisions, distributor service portfolio optimization, and engineering education.
Rutwik Dehade Texas A&M University
Glen Miller

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