The Snail Progression of Ethical Instruction: Nurturing Ethical Mindsets Across the Biomedical Engineering Curriculum
In response to the growing importance of ethical consciousness in the realm of biomedical engineering, we present a comprehensive educational initiative designed to seamlessly integrate ethics across the entire curriculum. This endeavor involved close collaboration with faculty members and the provision of summer salary support to develop substantial ethical thinking exercises within key technical courses, including Modeling Cells and Cellular Systems, Imaging Systems, Instrumentation, Biomaterials, and senior capstone design classes. This initiative, aptly named the "Snail Progression of Ethical Instruction," introduces a structured framework spanning four years, each emphasizing essential ethical virtues. Through this, we foster an appreciation among students and faculty on ethical codes of conduct and character traits we hope biomedical engineers will uphold in their careers, preparing them to navigate complex ethical dilemmas with confidence and integrity. The journey commences in Year 1 with a focus on humility. Students are encouraged to balance the inherent challenges of failure with the pursuit of truth, laying the foundation for a humble and resilient ethical mindset. Year 2 amplifies the journey with curiosity, urging students to explore the origins of materials and contemplate the consequences of their use, irrespective of utility. This curiosity fosters a deep understanding of ethical implications, encouraging critical thinking in material selection and application. In Year 3, the focus shifts to imagination. Students are challenged to envision the far-reaching consequences of innovations, emphasizing the intricate web of system-wide effects. This imaginative exploration equips students with the ability to anticipate and address unintended consequences, instilling a sense of responsibility in their innovative endeavors. Year 4 revisits complexity, underscoring the necessity of deep knowledge, skill integration, and practical experience in ethical decision-making. Good engineering design is viewed as a holistic process, demanding a nuanced understanding of ethics that can only be achieved through a multidisciplinary approach. Through focus groups and survey reports of our students, we begin to quantify and compare our longitudinal progress in integrating ethical inquiry within engineering technical knowledge. Our surveys focus on characterizing the climate of students' perceived value of ethics while our focus groups demonstrate student ethical knowledge. We aim to demonstrate a positive relationship in both over time. This initiative not only enriches the educational experience but also molds students into ethical leaders capable of upholding the highest standards of integrity within the field of biomedical engineering. The Snail Progression of Ethical Instruction stands as a testament to the transformative power of structured ethical education, ensuring that the next generation of biomedical engineers is not only technically proficient but also ethically astute, embodying the virtues of humility, curiosity, imagination, and complexity management in their professional journeys.
