9th International Conference on Engineering Education M5K-1 Integrating Ethics into a Research Experience for Undergraduates

Abstract – A regular weekly seminar on engineering ethics has been part of an ongoing NSF-sponsored Research Experience for Undergraduates initiated in 2003. The seminar has always featured active student-centered learning centered on applying ethical principles to daily situations in education, research and the engineering profession. In summer 2004, students were further challenged to consider and investigate and present about how ethics relates to their summer research project. In the seminar, topics include introduction to ethical frameworks, professional codes of ethics, academic/research integrity, and sustainable engineering. The methods used in the class include brief slide shows reviewing key points, interactive case studies (written and video), an ethics game involving many short cases, and student presentations linking ethics to their research projects. This paper reviews the processes and techniques developed over the three years of the program