The Ethics Bowl at UPRM: A Capstone Experience for Engineering Ethics Students

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The Ethics Bowl at UPRMA Capstone Experience
for Engineering Ethics Students

• William J. Frey, Halley D. Sanchez José A. Cruz
  
• Center for Ethics in the Professions
• University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez
• February 28, 2004
• APPE - Cincinnati

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Our Engineering Ethics Course is not a
theoretical ethics course, but a true practical
and professional ethics course
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Emphasis on Ethical Decision Making Skills
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Black Beltvs.Basic Self-Defense Skills
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Just in Time Theory
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Three Tests

• Harm
• Reversibility
• Publicity/Ownership

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Tests encapsulate fundamental ethical theories

• Harm utilitarian/consequentialism
• Reversibility Deontology
• Publicity/Ownership Virtue Ethics

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Engineering Ethics Course

• Basic Ethical Self-Defense
• Hands on
• Communication skills
• Team work

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Ethics Bowl highlights all these features
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What we wish to share

• How? When? Why? EB emerges in EE
• Preparing for the competition in a course
• Quick overview of the EB Experience
• Students
• Judges
• Assessment

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How? When? Why? the Ethics Bowl emerges in
Engineering Ethics at UPRM

• We sought use for the pool of cases developed in
  workshops
• Our participation in Ethics Bowls at APPE leads
  to the idea of running a similar but smaller
  competition at UPRM
• Robert Ladenson at IIT suggested that we
  introduce the Ethics Bowl into UPRM ethics
  classes
• Deciding Factor through careful case selection,
  we could cover the full range of topics of
  engineering ethics
• Added Bonus We can assess our outcomes by
  student performance on ethics questions in
  licensing exams (BER)

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Identify Issues Prepare Cases

• Issue Identification Workshops
• Practitioners present on the issues in the
  workplace
• Business/Science/Engineering Faculty Workshops
• ABET Workshops (cases by engineering faculty)
• Textbooks Literature
• News Media
• Surveys, statistics and similar reports
• Mind the Gap Survey (McGinn, SEE, Oct. 2003)
• Students Peers

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Ethics Bowl Cases Cross-Reference
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Cases support local (PR) issues
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Building the Foundation Learning Outcomes

• Skills
• Ethical Awareness
• Ethical Evaluation
• De-capsulation (practice to theory)
• Ethical Integration
• Group/Teamwork Skills
• Communications Skills

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Preparing for the Ethics Bowl
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Engineering Topics/Activities

• Defining Activities
• Class definition of ethics
• Class definition of engineering (science, art,
  design, business, technology, math)
• Preparatory Modules
• Pre-test (issues and ethics tests)
• Gray Matters (evaluating and ranking solutions in
  terms of ethics tests)
• Integration
• Making and defending decision in essays
• Professional Ethics
• Students draft their own codes to challenge the
  CIAPR code of ethics
• Ethical Foundations of CIAPR Code
• Ethics Bowl
• Ethics Bowl Debriefing

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Covering the Issues

• Students prepare summaries of Ethics Bowl Cases
• 9 decision scenarios
• 6 NSPE BER cases
• Summaries Team Position/Best Counter-Argument/Res
  ponse to Best Counter-Argument
• Turn in before competition
• The teams, judges or moderators will not know in
  advance which of the cases will be utilized
  during the competitions or what the moderator
  questions will be

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Accommodating the Competition to the Classroom

• For the Engineering Ethics Class

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Round One
T1
T2
T1
T2
Team 1
Team 2
T1
T2
?
Judges
MQ
JX
JY

• The moderator will announce the case for team one
  (T1)
• The moderator will read the question to be
  answered (MQ)

• T1 team members confer ( 2 minutes )
• T1 a spokesperson will respond to MQ ( 5 minutes
  )

• T2 the opposing team members confer ( 2 minutes
  )
• T2 a spokesperson will counter-present ( 5
  minutes )
• It may include the posing of a question to T1.

• T1 team members confer ( 1 minute )
• T1 responds to T2s counter-presentation (3
  minutes )

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Round One - contd
T1
T2
T1
T2
Team 1
Team 2
T1
T2
Judges
MQ
?
?
JX
JY

• JX JY confer (briefly)
• JX asks a question of T1

• T1 team members confer ( 1 minute )
• T1 team responds to question by JX ( 3 minutes )

• JY asks a question of T1
• T1 team members confer ( 1 minute )

• T1 team responds to question by JY ( 3 minutes
  )
• JX/JY may ask follow-up questions

• Total time for QA with judges should not exceed
  15 minutes
• JX/JY will complete score sheets independently

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Judge Selection Goals

• Select judges to simulate the interdisciplinary
  audience students will face in the workplace
• Provide students with feedback
• Interdisciplinary judge teams represent code
  stakeholders (public, client, peer, profession)
• Provide ethics teacher with feedback
• Issues that need to be covered
• How convincing are student arguments to
  non-ethicists
• To expose faculty (H E) to the ethical issues
  that arise in engineering practice

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Preparing the Judges

• Judge Packet
• Rules and Procedures
• Ethics Tests Guidelines
• Cases
• Scoring Criteria and Scoring Sheet

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Assessment Feedback in lieu of Grading

• Ethics Bowl is ideal for providing students
  feedback on ethics skills
• Judges employ different interpretations of
  criteria (just as students will encounter
  different standards in real world)
• Competing teams challenge one another and provide
  one another feedback
• Students use feedback received in EB to write an
  in-depth case study analysis
• Students respond to judges comments and
  competitors arguments in a follow-up report and
  self-evaluation
• Professor fills out a rubric giving students
  feedback on decision-making and use of tests
  students respond to rubric in final report

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Formal Debriefing on Ethics Bowl

• Groups select one of the two ethics bowl cases
  they defended for final in-depth case study
• Workshops are held where groups prepare
• Stakeholder Tables
• Options for resolving ethical disagreements
• Problem Classification Tables
• Self-Evaluation Preparation Workshops

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Formal Debriefing on Ethics Bowl

• Students prepare group self-evaluations
• Group Goals with Modifications
• Success in Meeting Goals
• Obstacles Encountered and Modes of Response
• Individual Member Evaluations (Students rate each
  other in terms of percent of contribution)

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Conclusion
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Ethics Bowl in the classroom incorporates many
key features stressed by accreditation agencies
(ABET et al.)

• Basic Ethical Self-Defense
• Hands on activities
• Communication skills
• Critical thinking skills
• Teamwork

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Thank You!Questions? / Comments? /
Suggestions?Similar Experiences?
If you try something like this, let us know
about the results William J. Frey
wfrey_at_uprm.edu Halley D. Sanchez
hsanchez_at_uprm.edu José A. Cruz
jacruz_at_uprm.edu Visit www.uprm.edu/ethics
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Possible Brainstorming PointLesson
Learned?Default Ethicsvs.Using Tests (or
Theories)
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What might this be telling us about how persons
learn and use ethical tests/theories?What might
this be telling us about moral imagination?Perha
ps the tests are not just theory?
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What might this be telling us about the
relationship between what is called ethics and
practical and professional ethics?