Engaging High School Students in Engineering Ethics

• In Event: Designing to Improve Engagement and Problem Solving

Abstract

As part of their education, aspiring engineers must learn to rigorously engage in issues of ethics (ABET, Inc., 2013) as they weigh economic, environmental, legal, social, and political constraints. Though a large body of empirical and theoretical literature has been published on the teaching of ethics in undergraduate courses, we were unable to locate research on the teaching of ethics to high school students. The purpose of this research was therefore to examine how high school students operationalized the concept of ethics and applied it to their own design work as part of a larger curriculum on ethics in engineering. We found that the students tended to prioritize low costs for consumers above other ethical considerations.

Authors

• Amy Alexandra Wilson, Utah State University

• Christina Marie Sias, Utah State University