Introduction Of Contemporary Engineering Ethics Issues In A Freshman Engineering Course

This paper presents summary of changes that were introduced in “ethics” instruction in a freshman year introductory engineering course at Virginia Tech. While ethics is 10% of the course content, substantial changes were made to the course curriculum in fall 2005 so that 1200 students could be better engaged in learning ethics material. Parts of these changes are attributed to an NSF supported department-level reform (DLR) project. Traditionally, ethics instruction in the course included reading assignments and video presentations. However, this year, a presentation assignment was developed for the course’s 32-seat workshops. Groups of 3 to 6 students were assigned one of eight recent topics: 1) levee construction in New Orleans 2) looting and government response in New Orleans 3) debris removal in New Orleans 4) contamination issues in New Orleans 5) rebuilding New Orleans 6) Asian tsunami of December 2004 7) San Francisco and earthquake preparedness and 8) Galveston and hurricanes. For each topic, groups were given instructions regarding subjects and questions to address. During a workshop period, each team was allowed 6 minutes to present and 2 minutes to answer questions. The main goals of this assignment were to increase freshmen students’ engagement in technical communication and teamwork and to boost awareness of current events and ethics. Surveys revealed students’ opinions and showed that the changes to how ethics is taught at Virginia Tech is well-received by many students.