Improving Ethics Studies Through A Spiral Curriculum: Piloting An Ethics Discussion At The Senior Level

The Biological Systems Engineering (BSE) and Engineering Education departments at Virginia Tech have identified the need to enhance undergraduate student exposure to engineering ethics. It was decided the best method for improving ethics training is to have students continuously revisit engineering ethics material at increasing levels of complexity through a four-year spiral themed curriculum. This is one goal of Virginia Tech’s Department Level Reform (DLR) project, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Previous work has consisted of compiling a library of related ethics case studies, particularly related to Bioprocess Engineering, along with different methods for implementing these case studies. An ethics exercise was implemented at the BSE sophomore level during the fall 2006 semester. This work has been presented at the 2006 and 2007 ASEE Annual Conference and Expositions. As the project moves into its final phases, these departments have continued to expand their library of ethics case studies and piloted an exercise to be used during the fourth phase of the spiral. BSE students focusing in Bioprocess Engineering are required to take a Food Process Engineering course taught during the fall semester of their senior year. Some appropriate ethics case studies for this course include the conflicting views of the food industry and consumers. Companies often add controversial ingredients, such as trans-fat and diacetyl, to their products to make them tastier and typically target youth who often influence family purchases. If successful in attracting a younger consumer to a product, a company will usually have a customer for life. Students were asked to complete a pre-survey, designed to gauge their understanding of the above ethical issue. Students then read the provided resources and individually completed an informal written assignment, of which the goal was to have students form their own opinions about the topic. When students returned to class, they shared their views with the class during a discussion. Students were then asked to complete the pre-survey questions as a post-survey to gauge their learning experience from this exercise. This activity increased student exposure to the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) Code of Ethics for Engineers and also increased awareness of ethical issues related to food companies adding questionable ingredients for the purpose of creating lifelong consumers for their products. Background and Spiral Approach At an institution, 1200+ engineering students enter a general engineering program and participate in a common first semester course offered by the Department of Engineering Education (EngE). Each year approximately 30 of these students elect to enter into the Department of Biological Systems Engineering (BSE) with about half focusing in the Bioprocess Engineering area of the department. A collaborative effort between some faculty of EngE and BSE, funded by the department-level reform (DLR) program of the National Science Foundation (NSF), is currently underway. The goal of the DLR program for these two departments is to reformulate curricula within the EngE and BSE programs by utilizing a theme-based spiral curriculum approach. Jerome Bruner, the twentieth-century psychologist, proposed the notion of a spiral curriculum in P ge 13716.2 which basic ideas are visited repeatedly in an increasingly complex manner. Figure 1 provides a visual description of the spiral curriculum being implemented by the EngE and BSE faculty. Active learning in the form of hands-on activities is one of the strategies being used to teach the main theme of sustainability, with supporting themes of design, systems, and ethics. Figure 1. Schematic of a spiral theme based curriculum. As part of this project, a library of ethics case studies, particularly related to Bioprocess Engineering, was developed and has begun to be incorporated into the curriculum. This library and methods for implementing these case studies, was created as part of an undergraduate research project during summer 2005. In addition the two departments incorporated an ethics exercise, revolving around one of these case studies (genetically modified products) in a designated sophomore course offered in the BSE Department. The details from these works were presented during the 2006 and 2007 ASEE Annual Conference and Expositions. Freshman year: ethics instruction One of the main objectives of the freshman introductory engineering course, taught by EngE is that students should be able to demonstrate an understanding of professional ethics and be able to apply it to real-life situations upon the successful completion of the course. During this course students watch the National Institute for Engineering Ethics’ Incident at Morales video which introduces ethics concepts such as making tradeoffs, public health, and differences in international laws. Students are required to read a chapter discussing basic moral theories and a few classic engineering case studies from a basic engineering text such as Holtzapple and Reece’s Concepts in Engineering. Additionally, students reflect on ethics by participating in a group exercise, which has included group skits and presentations in past semesters. Students are put in groups and asked to present or act out a given ethical situation. The class then participates in a discussion about what they have just observed. This introduction to professional ethics becomes the foundation for ethical training received in the upperclassman years. P ge 13716.3 BSE sophomore year: ethics instruction BSE sophomores are required to take an Introduction to BSE course which includes an oil extraction laboratory. The lab exercise focuses on reintroducing the systems concept to students through process flow, yield, and waste reduction aspects. A BSE faculty member introduces the lab material in which students grind raw cottonseed, extract the oil, and refine the raw oil. The procedure exposes students to vegetable oil production, yield calculations, and waste product disposal. Upon completion of the laboratory, students are required to perform a formal write up, consisting of introduction, materials and methods, and results and discussion sections. In addition, during the fall 2006 semester an ethics aspect was incorporated into this lab. Students were provided with a brief written introduction to genetically modified, or transgenic, products and asked to complete an informal written assignment which had them consider differences that might occur in the production of cottonseed oil if transgenic cottonseed were used as the raw material. Once the assignment was collected, a BSE graduate student led an informal class discussion regarding the potential ethical concerns of genetically modified products. Throughout the discussion, students were asked to place themselves in different perspectives (consumers, farmers, oil extraction companies, etc.) to analyze the situation. The goal of the discussion was to allow students to observe the different views of their classmates. BSE senior year: case studies Pilot case studies focused on controversial food ingredients because they address key ethical issues, including food safety, health concerns, and conflicting views of the government, the food industry, and consumers. Trans-fats and diacetyl were the two examples provided. More information concerning these case studies are given below. Food companies often partially hydrogenate vegetable oils, allowing for more saturation and higher melting points. This makes the oils more spreadable, more likely to inhibit spoilage, and more applicable for baked, fried, snack, and processed foods. Recent studies have shown transfats have a negative effect on blood lipid levels, increasing bad cholesterol levels and decreasing good cholesterol levels. This has lead to an epidemic of coronary heart disease in the Western World, specifically the United States. In 1999 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommended avoiding consumption of trans-fats. Additionally as of January 1, 2006, manufacturers are required to list the tans-fat content separate from the total fat content found on the standard Nutrition Facts label on food products. Trans-fats continue to receive a bad reputation in the media as some groups have begun banning the tasty ingredient. One of these groups includes the Indiana State Fair whose vendors sell deep-fried Oreos, Twinkies, corn dogs, funnel cakes, and french fries. Instead fair vendors are now required to use trans-fat-free cooking oil, which has been found to produce treats as yummy as those made in the regular oil. Additionally some fast food chains, including Kentucky Fried Chicken, Girl Scout cookies, and New York City have either banned or cut back on transfats. P ge 13716.4 Diacetyl, also known as butanedione, occurs as a natural byproduct of fermentation and is typically found in dairy products such as butter, cheese, and milk. It provides the buttery odor and flavor of many foods, especially microwave popcorn. It has recently come under scrutiny because some microwave popcorn manufacturer workers have begun developing a rare lung condition known as bronchiolitis obliterans, more commonly deemed popcorn lung. Eric Peoples, a worker in a popcorn factory, was one of the first highly publicized cases of popcorn lung. Peoples, aged 32, used to mix flavors for microwave popcorn and claimed his lung condition, of which the only cure is a double lung transplant, was a result of his exposure to diacetyl due to fumes from the oils. He and his wife were awarded 20 million dollars for his injuries from the two makers of the butter oils: International Flavors and Fragrances Inc. and its subsidiary Bush Boake Allen Inc. It was claimed they new the chemicals were poisonous but did not provide adequate warning to the people working with them. BSE senior year: course imple