Professional Development Event

Teaching Ethics to Bioscience Students: Sustainability and the Environment

Wednesday 9 December, 2009

Cardiff University

This event provided an opportunity for colleagues to discuss practice and share ideas on how best to prepare students to deal with issues associated with environment and sustainability. The day consisted of presentations from bioscientists describing the delivery of environmental ethics teaching and practical examples of effective approaches, techniques and methods.

This event gave delegates the opportunity to:

Hear views of why it is important to teach environmental ethics and help bioscience students to develop their ethical decision-making skills
Listen to accounts of practical examples of appropriate approaches, techniques and methods for teaching environmental ethics to bioscience students

The event also contained a swapshop session, giving delegates the opportunity to share ideas and practice in a short presentation.

Follow this event on Twitter at #CfBethics

Programme

10.00	Registration; Tea and Coffee
10.20	Welcome and Introduction to the day Steve Maw, UK Centre for Bioscience
10.30	The challenges of teaching environmental ethics Professor John Bryant, University of Exeter
10.40	Keynote: Precaution, sustainability and Copenhagen: teaching ethics to scientists Professor Robin Attfield, Cardiff University
11.25	Refreshments
11.45	Teaching environmental ethics: gate-crashing, star-gazing and mud-wrestling Mark Huxham, Edinburgh Napier University
12.15	Applied Bioethics: Bioethics of Food and the Environment Kate Millar, Centre for Applied Bioethics, University of Nottingham
12.45	Lunch
13.30	Parallel workshops Exploring the environmental aspects of nanotechnology – a case study approach Donal O'Mathuna, Dublin City University Nuclear Power - the Bright Future? Chris Southgate, University of Exeter
14.30	Refreshments
14.45	Swapshop session: short informal contributions from delegates - an opportunity to share ideas or practice on aspects of ethics teaching and get feedback from colleagues. Videos and bioethics Chris Willmott, University of Leicester Scenario-based approaches to Environmental and Conservation Ethics Roger Downie, University of Glasgow Introducing bioethics: the 'ethics committee' and the 'focus group' Mark Goodwin, GENIE CETL An Introductory Exercise in Articulating Values in Environmental Ethics Iain Matthews, University of St Andrews Teaching Nanoethics Using Science Fiction Donal O'Mathuna, Dublin City University
16.00	Reflections on the day and close Chris Willmott, University of Leicester