2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Do you need an ethical framework? Examining and negotiating ethical standards using students’ personal moral perspectives

Presented at Engineering Ethics Division (ETHICS) Technical Session - Virtue & Ethics in the Profession

In this evidence-based practice paper, we examine a team-based exercise in developing and negotiating ethical standards for a hypothetical engineering company, designed to expose first-year engineering students to varying and competing moral perspectives among professionals in the engineering workplace without devoting class time to an overview of moral and ethical philosophy. This is done by leveraging the variety of moral perspectives already present within the classroom. Students reflect, then collaborate on a graphic representation of their company’s moral priorities. Our analysis explores the questions that student teams used to develop their priorities, the ways in which they were negotiated, and the ways in which they disagreed. The various themes present show that the exercise does indeed put students in a position where they are exposed to competing moral viewpoints, and can gain experience negotiating them. The results will also provide structure that can help guide planning and class discussions for instructors choosing to deploy a similar activity.

Authors

Dr. Benjamin Daniel Chambers Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University [biography]

Dr. Ben Chambers is an Assistant Collegiate Professor in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. His research focuses include the interactions of non-humans with the built environment, the built environment as a tool for teaching at the nexus of biology and engineering, and creativity-based pedagogy. He earned his graduate degrees from Virginia Tech, including an M.S. Civil Infrastructure Engineering, M.S. LFS Entomology, and a Ph.D. in Environmental Design and Planning.
Dr. Natalie C.T. Van Tyne http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7058-9098 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University [biography]

Natalie Van Tyne is an Associate Professor of Practice at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, where she teaches first year engineering design as a foundation course for Virginia Tech's undergraduate engineering degree programs. She holds a Ph.D. in Engineering Education, along with Masters degrees in chemical and environmental engineering, and in business administration, as well as Bachelors degrees in chemical engineering and Russian language.

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