Ethics Concerns Draw Many Questions, Some Answers

About a decade ago, my colleague Bonnie Wylo and I ¹ surveyed a subpopulation of the physics community to determine if there was support for courses dealing with ethics and, if so, what topics would be usefully addressed. Interestingly, there seemed to be more support for ethics courses from the respondents outside academia than from those in it. Given that most students we teach do not wind up with academic jobs, issues faced by physicists in non-academic environments deserve some attention in ethics education.

Eastern Michigan University has been offering Ethical Issues in Physics, a one-hour discussion course, for about 15 years. The issues it covers were modified in response to our survey. Students become familiar with statements from the American Physical Society, American Chemical Society, and various engineering organizations. They examine issues related to research and to the interaction between physicists and society. Although the course was originally conceived to cater to research physicists early in their careers, it now also is important to the education of future high-school teachers. Accrediting agencies have cited this course as a strength of our teacher education program.