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Service-learning and engineering ethics

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Abstract

This paper explores ways in which service-learning programs can enhance ethics education in engineering. Service-learning programs combine volunteer work and academic study. The National Society for Professional Engineers (NSPE) and American Society for Civil Engineers (ASCE) codes of ethics explicitly encourage engineers to seek opportunities, beyond their work-related responsibilities, to serve their communities. Examples of how this can be encouraged as a part of the educational experiences of engineering students are explored.

Calvin: How good do you have to be to qualify as good? I haven’t killed anybody. See, that’s good, right? I haven’t committed any felonics. I didn’t start any wars. I don’t practice cannibalism. Wouldn’t you say I should get lots of presents?

Hobbes: But maybe good is more than the absence of bad. Calvin and Hobbes

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate College, Western Michigan University, 49008, Kalamazoo, MI, USA

    Michael S. Pritchard (Willard A. Brown Professor of Philosophy, Director, Center for the Study of Ethics in Society, Associate Dean)

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  1. Michael S. Pritchard
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Correspondence to Michael S. Pritchard.

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Pritchard, M.S. Service-learning and engineering ethics. SCI ENG ETHICS 6, 413–422 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-000-0041-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-000-0041-z

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