Ethical Development Through the Use of Fiction in a Project-based Engineering Program

Abstract

Rebecca A. Bates received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Washington. She also received the M.T.S. degree from Harvard Divinity School. She is currently Professor and Chair of the Department of Integrated Engineering program at Minnesota State University, Mankato, home of the Iron Range, Twin Cities and Bell Engineering programs.

Science Fiction as an Entry Point for Ethical Frameworks in Engineering and Computer Science Education

“…However, in recent years, professors have begun to experiment with science fiction short stories as vehicles for teaching disciplinary ethics (e.g. [13,14,15,16,17]). The following sections give a practical, hands-on guide for how an instructor might use a science fiction short story to incorporate ethics into a content-driven course.…”