This award is made through the Ethics Education in Science and Engineering solicitation (NSF (06-524)). The goal of this project is to address the need for scientists to become productive participants in public debates over science and technology. This need is expressed in the declaration on science and scientific knowledge adopted at the 1999 World Conference on Science which states: "There is a need for a vigorous and informed democratic debate on the production and use of scientific knowledge. The scientific community and decision-makers should seek the strengthening of public trust and support for science through such a debate. Greater interdisciplinary efforts, involving both natural and social sciences, are a prerequisite for dealing with ethical, social, cultural, environmental, gender, economic and health issues." The purpose of this project is to advance such interdisciplinary efforts by developing and disseminating educational tools for instruction in ethical dialogue and practical reasoning for scientists to participate more effectively in important public scientific debates. This project combines research and education to produce four deliverables: 1) rigorously tested, effective educational materials, including curricula, course syllabi, a book, and ancillary materials for teaching ethical dialogue and practical reasoning to graduate students in the natural and social sciences; 2) three online courses and an online resource and electronic activity center with materials relevant to social and ethical public debates over science and technology; 3)two cohorts of graduate students trained in ethical dialogue and practical reasoning; and 4) six policy documents on the debates over biotechnology, nanotechnology, and climate change. The project will be organized by the Center of Ethics at The University of Montana in cooperation with the Highlands Biological Station of the University of the North Carolina and involves an interdisciplinary team of researchers, educators and graduate students from a host of academic disciplines, universities and research institutions across the country. The project seeks to advance knowledge and create an intellectual impact by developing a new educational approach that integrates recent advances in the field of practical reasoning and ethical dialogue into teaching ethics to graduate students in science and engineering. This project is original in its use of a new model for practical reasoning. This model promises to make public deliberations about important scientific debates more logically ordered, systematic and complete, as well as more capable of integrating scientific and ethical components. The project will provide an intellectual contribution to the scientific community by teaching scientists how their discoveries fit into broader social and humanistic contexts, and to the philosophical community by creating new theoretical and practical tools for applied ethics. While advancing discovery and new intellectual inquiry, the project also promotes teaching through the production of new educational materials and a coordinated program of study that will be disseminated electronically and made widely available to teachers and students in graduate courses across the country. More than 70 graduate students will be recruited as summer institute workshop participants who will come from a variety of disciplines, diverse ethnicities, genders, ages, cultures, heritages, and training.
