Ethics
Ethics is the moral philosophy and principles that guide modern research and scientific development. Students should be aware of the importance that ethics has to the scientific community and be encouraged to reflect on ethical debates as part of this course. Rather than teaching this as a standalone topic, it would be far more engaging to weave this content into various topics at appropriate points, so that students are aware of its importance as a key ‘thread’ that underpins the work of anyone on the science or healthcare sector. The resources listed below include various topics and platforms for debating – a key skill to encourage with students and essential for them to appreciate both sides of an argument or dilemma. The resources also include materials that could be used as lesson starters, comprehension tasks or case studies and often provide up to date news articles and stories that provide relevance to the real world.
Case Studies in Personalised Healthcare
From the Nuffield Council on Bioethics. this resource collection consists of three case studies that explore the ethical questions arising for people using health services. Included in the resources are background information, lesson notes, suggested activities and discussion questions.
The three case studies are:
*Personal genetic profiling for susceptibility to disease
*Buying medicines online
*Health information websites
The resources can be used with the case studies for discussion in the classroom.
The Use of Animals in Research
These Nuffield Council on Bioethics resources aim to help students make informed decisions about the use of animals in research.There are 10 activities to choose from, made up of individual starters, activities, plenaries and an assessment exercise which can be dropped into a lesson or used as a whole.
Kialo
Kialo is an online debate website (an education version is available) which provides a way of raising and responding to ethical questions. A question can be raised and students can be invited to then add their comments and reasoning on either side of an argument or dilemma. This could be set as a homework activity and then reviewed live in lesson. There are also many existing debates that have been created and are open for public comment – students could be tasked with identifying a selection of science or healthcare related dilemmas and sharing with these with the class.
I’m a Scientist Get Me Out of Here! Debate Kits
These debate kits provide a range of topics for debate including Big Data, Climate Change, IVF and STEM Cells. The resources include a lesson plan, links to external sites and information and briefing notes. They can be embedded within schemes of learning at various time points and provide a way of developing verbal and reasoning skills of students – as a teacher, you may wish to supplement the provided materials with additional resources, current news articles, etc which students can be asked to evaluate before participating in the debate.
Mosaic current topics for debate
Mosaic is an award-winning longform magazine, created by Wellcome, that tells stories about science and health. It published its final features in December 2019, with every feature being carefully fact checked and edited, and published under a Creative Commons licence. The articles that reside on the website make ideal stimulus material for debate and feature developments from the cutting edge of research. They are valuable for wider reading, as the basis for research or comprehension activities or for stimulating discussion in class
BEEP Bioethics Education Project
BEEP supports the teaching and learning of bioethics- the moral philosophy that surrounds biological and biomedical sciences. The website provides an ethics toolkit and a range of biological topics which are examined and summarized. Each topic has an activity with a question being posed along with a response field for students to add their own thoughts and opinions. The website can be used by students independently or the activities could feature as part of a lesson, where students are invited to share their own views before comparing with those already posted on the website. There are also a series of short video clips produce by students that can be used in lessons
PEEP Physics Education project
Similar to its sister biology site, PEEP supports the teaching and learning of ethics in physics. The website provides a range of physics-based topics which are examined and summarized. Each topic has an activity with a question being posed along with a response field for students to add their own thoughts and opinions. There are many resources on the website that are available for download, including worksheets, video clips and interactive exercises. Some materials may be aimed at a KS4 audience but they could be easily adapted for T-Level students.
Eurostem cell ethics resources
This website provides more than 100 stem cell educational resources and teaching tools, fully catalogued and quality assured. The database of resources can be searched specifically for ethics and this yields a number of teaching resources, lesson plans, debates, videos and articles for this topic.
‘Do you want to know a secret’ - Science Museum kit
This resource developed by the science museum is a great way of putting students ‘in the shoes’ of an individual who is contemplating genetic testing.
Students receive a sealed secret box that contains a chance card and then have to decide at the beginning and at the end of the activity whether they would want to open the box. Opening the box represents taking a genetic test. Students work in research groups to explore the issues surrounding genetic testing to help them make an informed choice about whether or not to open their box at the end of the activity. The activities as written here are aimed at KS4 but would still be of relevance and could be adapted to a KS5 audience.
Oxford University Debating Society
This is a youtube playlist which captures debates on various themes from the Oxford University Debating Society. Not all of the debates will be relevant, but there are some which relate to science or healthcare themes (e.g. genetic engineering undermining the nature of humanity). Students could be encouraged to listen to the debate or watch an excerpt and then discuss their opinions or write an article summarizing both sides of the debate
BMJ – the shameful past. Cigarette smoking and the lung cancer link
This is a BMJ scientific paper, written for general public audience, examining the link between lung cancer and smoking. The article provides unequivocal evidence of the role and responsibility that the cigarette manufacturing industry has to play in the global incidence of lung cancer. This would be an excellent article for students to practice their skills of reading and summarising and also to identify key ethical arguments.
GAVI, the vaccine alliance
Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, is an international organisation that works to improve access to life-saving vaccines in the world’s poorest countries. The website provides numerous case studies on the theme of vaccine development, deployment and accessibility. These case studies could be used to provide context to lessons on immunology and vaccination and could provide interesting stimulus material for a lesson starter or provocative point in a lesson where students could be asked to consider the ethics of global vaccine availability.
Ethical code for scientists
This is a link to the universal ethical code for scientists - a public statement of the values and responsibilities that scientists have. Three main aims are summarised and include encouraging ethical research, thinking about the implications and impacts of scientific work and supporting communication between scientists and the public on complex and challenging issues
The code is not mandatory but scientists and institutions are encouraged to reflect on and debate how these guidelines may relate to their own work. This code could feature as an inlay in student folders and be incorporated into practical investigations and planning where students consider whether their work will meet this code. It could also be used as part of a task where students research the work of a prominent historical scientist (e.g. Edward Jenner) and consider which parts of the current code were or were not met
Why do we need clinical trials?
This article explores from Science in School (European journal for science teachers) explores the reasons for and importance of clinical trials. The example used in this article is that of hydroxychloroquine being used to treat COVID-19 patients and the consequences of not following protocol and procedures. The article would provide interesting stimulus material for discussion or debate with a class.
Alltrials
AllTrials is an international initiative of Ben Goldacre, BMJ, Centre for Evidence-based Medicine, Cochrane Collaboration, James Lind Initiative, PLOS and Sense about Science. It is calling for all past and present clinical trials to be registered and their full methods and summary results reported. The website includes material that is ideal for looking at ethics – including myths and objections and various video clips and interviews that outline the hidden side of clinical trials. A summary video of Ben Goldacre discussing Clnical Data Transparency can be found here
E-bug vaccination and Dr. Wakefield’s MMR scare
The e-bug vaccination teaching pack explores common misconceptions about vaccinations and features Andrew Wakefield’s MMR vaccination scare. Students are asked to plot data from Public Health England surveillance data to understand the impact of this scare. The materials are aimed at KS4 but the activity could be extended to KS5 by further examination of Wakefield’s report and a critique of the main issues that surrounded the data validity.
The Forensic Use of Bioinformation
The Nuffield Council on Bioethics has developed a set of teaching resources based on its 2007 report The forensic use of bioinformation: ethical issues. These include teachers' background information as well as a set of activities.
There are three activities to teach students to think about how fingerprints and DNA profiles are used to investigate crime and the ethical issues that arise from the storage of bioinformation on national databases
Why do scientists do what scientists do?
This site is designed to help students embarking on a career in science to understand "the scientific mind-set". The topics covered include the scientific method, ratios and normalisation, cause and correlation, bias, controls, fair comparisons and randomisation and several other key areas of understanding. Each section includes a short summary video that explains the concept or topic and this is followed by a detailed written discussion. This would be a useful addition to a reading list supplied to students at the start of the course and could be referred to in lessons to emphasise a key aspect of scientific method.