EESE: Nationwide Nanotechnology Ethics Education Development

该奖项通过科学和工程伦理教育征集(NSF(06-524))颁发。该项目将调整由新墨西哥大学(UNM)由PI项目开发的一门新的研究生水平的课程--“纳米技术的社会和伦理影响”，并将其转移到广泛的机构。试点测试将在五所合作机构进行：霍华德州立大学、宾夕法尼亚州立大学、华盛顿大学、佐治亚理工学院和密歇根大学。UNM和合作机构都是国家科学基金会资助的国家纳米技术基础设施网络(NNIN)的伙伴机构。课程本身有一个由主题课程、嘉宾演讲者和一个项目组成的模块结构。在介绍了纳米技术并概述了伦理体系之后，研讨会式的课程解决了纳米技术的具体社会问题。其目的是创建一个真正的以国家为基础(而不是特定于机构)的纳米技术伦理资源，使各机构能够满足其特殊要求，使学生为应对新兴技术的伦理挑战做好准备。这项工作将得到在该项目初期实施的交互式国家电子资源的支持。这种交互式电子资源将使其有可能为几乎没有道德培训的教职员工带来令人信服的教学支持，特别是那些采取跨课程方法的教职员工。随着项目的进行，每个地点都将有教员在该主题领域获得经验，他们将逐渐变得更有能力参与这些主题的讨论。PIS项目将为这些教师提供个人支持，网络环境将为他们提供令人信服的材料。最后，在线环境将允许学生与经验丰富的讲师以及使用基于线程的公告栏的其他学生进行异步互动。在该项目的后期阶段，将探讨在讨论论坛中使用同步互动的潜力。纳米技术预计将产生重大的社会影响，并提出一些关键的伦理问题。由于大多数纳米技术培训都是在研究生阶段进行的，学生来自不同的学科，这导致人们预测，许多学生可能会以纳米技术专家的身份毕业，而根本没有接受过道德培训。这突显了需要一个教育基础，以解决这种跨学科研究中隐含的研究挑战和伦理问题。该项目也是对在NNIN网络上开展的纳米技术的社会和伦理影响研究的补充

This award is made through the Ethics Education in Science and Engineering solicitation (NSF (06-524)). The project will adapt a new graduate-level course, "The Societal and Ethical Implications of Nanotechnology," developed at the University of New Mexico (UNM) by the project PI, and transfer it across a wide range of institutions. Pilot-tests will be conducted at five collaborating institutions: Howard State University, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Washington, Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of Michigan. UNM and the collaborating institutions are all partner institutions in the NSF-funded National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN). The course itself has a modular structure of topic classes, guest speakers, and a project. After an introduction to nanotechnology, and an overview of ethical systems, seminar-style classes address the specific societal issues of nanotechnology. The intention is to create a true nationally-based (rather than institution-specific) nanotechnology ethics resource which will enable institutions to meet their particular requirements in preparing students for the ethical challenges of emerging technologies. This will be supported with an interactive national electronic resource to be implemented in the early stages of this project. This interactive electronic resource is what will make it possible to bring compelling pedagogic support to faculty with little training in ethics, especially those taking an across-the-curriculum approach. There will be faculty at each site who will gain experience in the subject area as the project proceeds, and who will become gradually more able to engage in discussion on these topics. The project PIs will provide individual support to these faculty, and the web environment will provide them with compelling materials. And finally, the online environment will allow students to interact asynchronously with an experienced instructor and with other students using thread-based bulletin boards. In the later stages of the project the potential of using synchronous interaction in discussion forums will be explored. Nanotechnology is predicted to have significant social impact, and to pose a number of critical ethical issues. Since the majority of nanotechnology training takes place at the graduate level, with the students coming from a range of disciplines, this leads one to predict that many students could graduate as nanotechnologists with no ethics training at all. This underlines the need for an educational basis from which to address the research challenges and ethical issues implicit in such interdisciplinary research. The project is also a complement to studies in the societal and ethical implications of nanotechnology being carried out across the NNIN network