TEACHING GEOETHICS WITH EXISTING SCIENCE CASE STUDIES

Science is becoming ever more intertwined with society, and this revised role of science has forced us to discuss the ethics of our discipline (e.g. in the June 2014 NSF-funded workshop: Teaching GeoEthics Across the Geoscience Curriculum). For example, the increasingly blurred lines between science and industry are a topic of ethics education integral for science majors. In fact, all undergraduates would benefit from geoethics education, because the ethical stills will help them manage policy decisions involving science (some controversial), make or live with decisions made in light of science-related risks and uncertainties, interpret media presentations of scientific information, etc.

Incorporating geoethics is not necessarily difficult or time consuming; instructors need to foster reflective thinking, justification of argument, and open dialogue, and these discussions can supplement existing course materials. In ethics courses, stories (aka case studies) are often used to present dilemmas and focus discussion and ethical discovery. The same can occur in geoscience courses, given that case studies written to teach science topics are often ripe with ethical components. In fact, any case that involves (a) making decisions, (b) impacts to individuals or communities, (c) impacts to ecosystems and the environment, and/or (d) scientific endeavors naturally contains ethical topics that, when made explicit to students, can be used to teach geoethics. This session presents ways to enhance existing case studies so that they can be used to present geoethics to introductory undergraduates. Sample cases from SERC's Cutting Edge and InTeGrate collections will be used as examples. In addition, the session addresses components of geoethics, and stresses the importance of teaching geoethics in the 21^st century classroom.