PRACTICAL TOOLKIT FOR EMBEDDING ETHICS IN THE ENGINEERING CURRICULUM

Abstract

The need to embed ethics into the engineering curriculum is a collective imperative if we are to successfully navigate complexity, uncertainty and challenging ethical issues to build a sustainable society that works for everyone. To maximise positive impact, behaviours such as inclusivity and sustainability must become instinctive - golden threads running through everything that engineers think and do. Proactively, bringing engineering ethics to the fore in engineering programmes is one way UK higher education equips future engineers with the skills and mindset they need to succeed. This workshop brings together best practice from expert practitioners across the UK, introducing a nationally curated 'Engineering Ethics Toolkit'. To help educators to know and use the toolkit the workshop offered an attractive translation of engineering ethics teaching theory to the practice of engineering education. In this workshop, participants were introduced to a pragmatic approach to integrating ethics content into their teaching, using examples and a detailed and interactive curriculum map, which connects the elements of the toolkit. Our aim is to ensure the toolkit becomes an ongoing, regular component of engineering teaching and highlighting excellence in integrating ethics. The workshop was as a seed to encourage further case studies to be developed and to also explore what can yet be done in this space to ensure the next generation of engineers are well-equipped to address the ethical issues they face.