Title: Explain how ethical behavior of engineers is essential to the betterment of society.
Course: Engineering Explorations I-(21005-36) > Section: Examining Engineering Practice

Explanation may include

- the development of national codes and standards and other checks and balances to ensure ethical practices
- the evolution of ethical solutions based on previous effects of engineering solutions
- examples of everyday ethical conflicts that engineers might face in their professional practice
- the major precursors of accidents
- examples of large-scale engineering decisions where engineering ethics should have played a more central role in the decision-making process (e.g., Flint, Michigan, water supply, Takata airbag, Challenger explosion, Volkswagen emissions scandal, FBI vs. Apple)
- the role of professional codes of ethics in the engineering profession and examples of fundamental tenets from such codes.

Process/Skill Questions:

- How can one differentiate between morality, personal ethics, and professional ethics, and what role they play in the workplace?
- What are the competing values or tensions at play when an engineer is facing an ethical dilemma?
- How might the ethical choice for society be a difficult decision to make?
- What are examples of unethical behaviors that have led to distrust of the engineering profession and/or engineering disasters?
- What are the tenets of the National Society of Professional Engineers Code of Ethics, and what role do they play in the betterment of society?
- What are the three types of accidents?
- How would one prevent a procedural accident?
- What should be in place to prevent a procedural accident?
- What were the problems with some famous engineering failures (e.g., Challenger and Columbia space shuttles, Hubble Space Telescope, Fukushima and Chernobyl nuclear power plants)?
- How could these accidents have been avoided?
- What led to the Challenger explosion, and how did engineers try to warn NASA officials about it (deviations of standards, also known as normalization of deviation)?
- What are the factors leading to the 2018 pedestrian bridge collapse in Miami? How could this disaster have been prevented?
- What should one do if one identifies a precursor? Refer to the canons or principles of the engineering professions.
- How could one use the design process to avoid accidents? What methods could one use to identify deviation? Human error? Operating experience?
- What tools or experiences could one use to detect precursors?

Teacher Resource:

Online Ethics Center for Engineering and Science