Debating Science is an interdisciplinary and inter-institutional project designed to develop, test, refine and make widely available a new interdisciplinary model for teaching applied ethics. Most ethics instruction for young scientists currently consists of standards of practice, rather than fundamental critical thinking skills requisite for ethical dialogue. Interactive and flexible techniques included within this project allowed young scientists to engage with their peers, their critics, and society as a whole as we explored the complicated interactions among science, morality, politics, and ethics.
Scientists and engineers increasingly find themselves in the midst of heated public debates, without the means to translate scientific information in a social context, or to evaluate non-scientific social beliefs. At the same time, non-scientists lack the means to understand complex scientific results and, especially, the implications of scientific uncertainty. As a result, crucially important science debates are widely criticized as being of low quality.
The program provided young scientists with the tools they need to enter into social discourse. In doing so, they will become not only better citizens, but also conduits for scientific results to move out of the laboratory and into the community. This Online Resouce Center has been developed to provide science and philosophy educators with high-quality tools to teach other young scientists these same skills.
Learn more about Debating Science with our interactive online course.
Debating Science is sponsored by the National Science Foundation through the program on Ethics Education in Science and Engineering.
