OVERALL APPROACH:
The University of Cincinnati summer REU Site Program includes formal
ethics components as well as online resources for ethics supported by
the NSF. The ethics context and case examples we use derive from engineering,
biomedicine, and a broad science and society perspective.
CASE CENTERED DISCUSSIONS:
Our REU ethics currriculum uses case studies derived from and modified
for the undergraduate context. Weekly REU meetings will include discussion
of an assigned ethics case. Cases will be selected from those prepared
by the Lockheed-Martin Corporation [1]. Cases will be presented in a
format that first reviews case background information, then encourages
the REU student to formulate an ethical solution, and finally reveals
the solution that was applied. The selected cases involve a variety
of ethical issues ranging from plagiarism, honesty in reporting research
results, sharing credit for research achievements, acknowledging the
work of other researchers, and professional responsibility to the community.
Selected cases from the Online Ethics in Engineering and Science website
[2] will also be used.
Ethics Resource Materials
Each REU student will receive the booklet entitled On Being a Scientist
- Responsible Conduct in Research prepared by the National Academy of
Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine
[3], and the paperback entitled Introduction to Engineering Ethics [4].
In addition, we will show and discuss the video Ethics and Scientific
Research [5].
Ethics Bibliography
1. Gray Matters: The Ethics Game Manual
- Phase II, No. G014-0006, Martin Marietta Corp. (1994)
2. The Online Ethics Center
for Engineering and Science at Case Western Reserve University (http://onlineethics.org/reseth)
3. On Being a Scientist: Responsible
Conduct in Research, National Academy Press, Washington, DC,
1995
4. Schinzinger, R. and M.W. Martin, Introduction
to Engineering Ethics, McGraw-Hill, NY, NY (2000).
5. Ethics and Scientific Research, Video
#6Z461, Insight Media, 2162 Broadway, NY, NY 10024-0641
