SOME EXAMPLES OF THE INCORPORATION OF GEOETHICS IN UNDERGRADUATE SCIENCE AND GEOSCIENCE CURRICULA

The June, 2014, Teaching Geoethics Across the Geoscience Curriculum Workshop provided a catalyst for more and more teaching faculty to incorporate in select coursework, in different ways and contexts, critical thinking skills that pertain to Geoethics and ethical decision making. As defined by previous workers, Geoethics and ethical decision making requires review and integration of the context/facts of the circumstances requiring an objective decision and will include stakeholders and decision-makers and should explore alternative actions and expected outcomes. Recent events, perhaps at a more accelerating pace, further testify to the increasing need to prepare the future geoscience workforce to be fully capable of solving the immediate and emerging “grand challenges” that face humanity. Solving these grand challenges will require that science, including of course geoscience, majors (the future workforce) have a working knowledge and proper appreciation of Geoethics and ethical decision making. For the past few years I have taught a “Science is the Rest of Your Life”-type class required of all incoming freshman science majors at the University of Texas at Dallas. One recently established learning outcome for the course is to “Begin the development of Social and Personal Responsibility and ethics required in the world and society at large”. Freshman interest in issues of ethics in science are keen; examples from all science disciplines can illicit student discussion of ethical conduct in science. Introductory geoscience courses, such as “Physical Geology”, offer opportunities for discussion of how we approach ethical issues related to matters that affect society and Earth, including efforts to minimize the effects of natural disasters and human-caused (thus human fixed???) activities/errors. For example, how will/should the EPA handle the August 5, 2015, Gold King Mine waste spill that prompted the banner headline “State of Emergency in NM” in my hometown newspaper? Is the construction of a many billion ton dolomite strip mine in the Florida Mountains, southern NM, to extract magnesium, a sound and safe enterprise? Also, more senior level capstone geoscience courses centered on geoscience careers and the presentation of geoscience are ideal venues for student engagement in Geoethics.