2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

BOARD # 369: ER2: Bringing High School Teachers up to Speed on Engineering Ethics Education

Presented at NSF Grantees Poster Session II

This paper presents the progress made in engaging high school teachers during Year 3 of a five-year NSF ER2 (Ethical and Responsible Research)-funded project focused on ethical research practices in science and engineering at a large public university in the southwestern United States. The project's broader objectives include assessing students' ethical research competency and self-efficacy, integrating ethics-focused learning materials into undergraduate engineering curricula, and providing enrichment experiences for high school teachers. This paper focuses on the Enrichment Experience in Engineering (E3) program, where six K-12 school teachers participated in a three-week summer initiative to integrate ethics into STEM education. Teachers were recruited from diverse school districts and regions, provided with room, board, and a stipend, and engaged in research, training, and curriculum development activities. They received instruction on and discussed topics of ethics, with an emphasis on science, technology, and engineering, developed lesson plans, and created posters showcasing their integration strategies. The participants also interacted with other E3 groups to explore best practices in engineering education. This paper describes the teacher selection process, program structure, and key outcomes, including ongoing discussions to assess the integration of ethics into their curricula. Lessons learned from this experience will inform future efforts to enhance ethical awareness in high school STEM education.

Authors

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 of Industrial Distribution Program in the Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution at Texas A&M University. His research interests include integration of supply chain management with new product development decisions, distributor service portfolio optimization, and engineering education.
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 Associate Provost for Academic Enhancement. He previously served as Interim Associate Vice President for Faculty Affairs and Interim Associate Provost for Faculty Success. 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.
Glen Miller

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 22, 2025, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 25, 2025

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