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Blending Codes: Ethics Education and the Energy Code -
Julia Keen

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No 0629443. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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Background

I incorporated ethics into “Building Energy Codes and Standards,” my course within ARE 720, Topics in Architectural Engineering. The course focuses on energy codes students must know in their careers as professional engineers, and in Spring 2007 I introduced a module that would help them read these codes to solve ethical dilemmas. | Implementation

Implementation

I used a PowerPoint presentation to introduce students to the Professional Code of Ethics and to an eight-step ethical decision making process. We used the process in class to work through one case study that I made increasingly complicated by adding or changing information. After we discussed ethics in class, I asked students to apply what they learned to evaluate a case study according to the ethical decision making procedure.

| Student Performance

Student Performance

Students generally performed well during in-class ethics discussions and on their case study analysis papers, which encouraged me to continue using the ethics module in future semesters. Half the papers were in the A range, and the best papers reflected an understanding of ethical complexity and multiple points of view.

| Reflections

Reflections

Ethical learning in this course helped students practice real-world application of ethics to appropriately read energy codes and consider professional challenges before entering the workplace. They learned how to use the ethical decision making procedure as a tool for reading energy codes and making informed, efficient decisions on the job. In the future, I would like to introduce more case studies for students to analyze.

| Summary

Project Summary

A Kansas State University architectural engineering professor incorporates ethics learning into a graduate elective course.