Nanotechnology ethics and policy education: learning and sharing across boundaries

Abstract

This abstract describes the published paper that documents a case study of the emergence and expansive adaptation of the ethics education component of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI). The case study began with a brief overview of nanotechnology as a U.S. federal policy initiative and the Nanotechnology Undergraduate Education (NUE) Program. Using nanotechnology as a framework, an interdisciplinary faculty team of more than 20 members at the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) developed the Nano-Science, Technology, Ethics, and Policy (NanoSTEP) project to better understand the effectiveness and influence of ethics and policy learning in the undergraduate engineering curriculum, and to graduate more effective contributors to 21st century engineering practice. NanoSTEP also examined relationships between emerging technologies and underrepresented populations, with respect to the potential for environmental and social justice deficiencies, both in access to opportunities for research and education, and in regard to benefitting from nanotechnology research and design. The NanoSTEP project components include a poster, a presentation, and a two-part curricular module, all of which may be found in the Mines Institutional Repository.