WABR - Education Materials

Bioethics Curriculum and Resources

Bioethics is the application of ethics to decision-making and public policy in biology, medicine, and health care. Understanding the social implications of biological knowledge and biomedical technology is an important civic responsibility.
Recommended starting points are highlighted in bold type.

Bioethics Resources (jump lower on page)

Bioethics Curriculum

1992 Access Excellence/Woodrow Wilson Ethics Activity Exchange.
Contains such gems as Using Fairy Tales to Promote Retention of Ethical Systems

ActionBioSci.Org
Although not limited to bioethics, there are many useful resources here, including a Primer on Ethics and Human Cloning, and over thirty different Lesson Plans.

A Question of Genes: Inherited Risks
These PBS high quality discussion guides are based on a video series, BUT the video is not needed to benefit from the guides. Each one-page (printable) scenario includes background on the case study and discussion questions. Case studies focus primarily on genetic testing scenarios.

DNA Files- Companion site to a NPR
Series. Contains interactive bioethical scenarios.

EIBE Units are collections of classroom activities from the European Institute for Biotechnology Education, including a variety of experimental protocols, practical activities, role-plays, information and debates. The units are very clearly written, provide information at an appropriate level, and are well-illustrated. Both biotechnology and bioethics units are featured.

Genetic Science Learning Center
Genetic Testing of Newborn Infants, a GSLC curriculum unit, provides a way to integrate genetic testing issues into the science classroom.

The High School Human Genome Project at the University of Washington provides an case study and a bioethical decision-making template. The Ethics curriculum module, which can be downloaded, allows students to explore ethical issues related to the genetic testing of Huntington's disease.

High School Bioethics Curriculum Project. On-line curriculum resources from the National Reference Center for Bioethics Literature for teaching bioethics, with units exploring ethical issues surrounding babies born at risk, organ transplantation, human experimentation, and eugenics.

Iowa State Bioethics Case Studies: A large collection of bioethics case studies, syllabi, and presentations.

OnlineEthics Center for Science and Engineering
This site contains a wide variety of useful resources and links on research ethics, moral leaders in science and engineering, women and minorities in science and engineering, and codes of ethics. Especially useful are the links for precollege curriculum (also featured in the Western Michigan University site), ethics in the biological sciences (which features a unit on the ethics of animals and research) and the case studies involving research ethics.

Western Michigan University's Center for the Study of Ethics in Society
Be sure to visit Ethics in the Science Classroom : An Instructional Guide for Secondary School Science Teachers with Model Lessons for Classroom Use. Staff from SUNY-Stony Brook and WMU developed this valuable guide, which contains many case studies and model lessons.

Your Genes, Your Choices: Exploring the Issues Raised by Genetic Research. This resource is published online by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and features 8 case scenarios easily adapted to a classroom setting.

Bioethics Resources

Bioethics.net
The American online bioethics journal. A great starting point for researching current issues.

High School Bioethics.net (University of Pennsylvania)
Offers briefs and an online 'help line' for interested students with questions about bioethics. Features a bioethics for beginners section, as well as special sections on subjects such as cloning.

Bioethics today
Bioethics from a UK/European perspective.

Dolan DNA Learning Center
Includes many DNA-related resources, including the Image Archive on the American Eugenics Movement

Ethics Matters
A bi-weekly feature from the University of Minnesota's Center for Bioethics and CNN Interactive.

GeneLetter is an online magazine of genetics, society and culture. It offers daily news and monthly features that explore the scientific, medical and bioethical issues surrounding genetics.

Human Genome Project Information - Ethical, Legal and Social Issues
National Human Genome Research Institute
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have devoted 3% to 5% of their annual Human Genome Project (HGP) budgets toward studying the ethical, legal, and social issues (ELSI) surrounding availability of genetic information. This represents the world's largest bioethics program, which has become a model for ELSI programs around the world.

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
The Bioethics Institute at Johns Hopkins features news and articles related to medical ethics.

Kennedy Institute is a teaching and research center offering ethical perspectives on major policy issues. It is the largest university based group of faculty members in the world devoted to research and teaching in biomedical ethics and other areas of applied ethics. The Institute also houses the most extensive library of ethics in the world, the National Reference Center for Bioethics Literature; produces bibliographic citations relating to bioethics for the online databases at the National Library of Medicine; and conducts regular seminars and courses in bioethics.

National Reference Center for Bioethics Literature. Visit the Educational and Teaching Resource Section for links to:

Syllabus collection - This syllabus collection is a catalog of more than 500 syllabi at the National Reference Center for Bioethics Literature, demonstrating how others have developed courses in such settings as: graduate and continuing medical education, undergraduate and graduate nursing education, graduate veterinary education, continuing medical education, and graduate dental education.

GEORGE is an online catalog of the National Reference Center for Bioethics Literature's extensive book collection at Georgetown University. Just search 7.2 (NRC classification number for medical education) as a subject and you will retrieve the latest books on medical education; or search 2.3 as a subject to find bioethics textbooks.

Bioethics Scope Note: Links to directories, on-line journals, teaching resources, and news/current events related to bioethics

NIH Bioethics Resources on the web - A great place to start for background information and various positions on a variety of bioethical issues.

University of Kansas Medical Center
Ethical, Legal, Social Issues of the Human Genome Project and related topics.

President's Council on Bioethics
The site for the US President's Council on Bioethics. The Council advises the President on ethical issues related to advances in biomedical science and technology

Wellcome Trust
The mission of the Trust is 'to foster and promote research with the aim of improving human and animal health'. Reflecting the profound impact today's research will have on society, the Wellcome Trust also seeks to raise awareness of the medical, ethical and social implications of research and promote dialogue between scientists, the public and policy makers.

LabNotes provides teachers with up-to-date information on research findings in biomedicine and the social and ethical implications of this research.

The Wellcome Trust commissioned the Institute of Education, London, to find out the importance teachers attached to the study of socio scientific issues and how they went about tackling such issues. A summary of the research - 'Valuable Lessons: Engaging with the social context of science in schools' - was published in July 2001.

Biotech Resource - 'Diagnosing Disease' Genetic Testing Module
Resource cards (pdf files) and supporting teachers' notes that aim to examine the technology and concerns associated with developments in genetics. The 'Diagnosing Disease' genetic testing card deals with ethical issues.

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