Partnerships and Pedagogies for Introducing Neuroethics to Secondary STEM Classrooms [Poster]

The field of neurotechnology offers both great promise and potential peril, necessitating a careful consideration of ethical concerns. This paper shares how a partnership between education staff, precollege teachers, and philosophers enabled a Research Experience for Teachers (RET) program to center professional learning on neuroethics. This partnership supported the design of curriculum materials focused on the intersection of ethics, science, technology, and engineering, which integrated a variety of pedagogical approaches. As a model for other engineering centers to explore, this paper also describes the cases of two high school science teachers who were embedded in a neuroethics research group for their summer research experience. Finally, program evaluation findings show that RET participants reported increases in knowledge related to ethical and responsible conduct in research and knowledge of core concepts in neuroethics. Some teachers in particular reflected that learning about neuroethics was impactful to their own professional learning and their students' learning. Integrating the study of ethics into scientific research, as well as into science and engineering education across all levels, is imperative for developing a citizenry that understands how to think through and make decisions about the complex social and ethical implications of emerging neurotechnologies.