Conversation

If you're in STEM, at what level did you first get taught ethics (in general, and as specifically relevant in your field)?

Mastodon only allows 4 poll choices so please write in the comments if these choices don't cover you.

22% high school/gymnasium
50% Bachelors
27% Masters
0% PhD
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Honestly, it would be great to just have replies anyway since I'm sure this is going to have many variables, but one is which field one is in.

Biology, post-baccalaureate community college.

Not a whole course. I have never been req'd to take a single whole ethics course. But I did have a prof who introduced ethical questions for discussion while teaching the genetics chapter of Gen Bio.

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@ml I took an elective ethics course during my masters. It was awful because it turned out to be religious propaganda (as life begins at embryo fertilization) 🙄
It was a wasted opportunity. Apparently my university have made it more balanced but I wouldn't recommended it.

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@eco_amandine @ml During my biology years there was an optional one-semester course on eugenics. An eye-opener as far as responsibility in our field goes.

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@ml software development and there was no mandatory ethics racclass. i guess there was an elective about inclusion and raccessibility. and in high school there was also an ethics racclass but only for non-racchristian students?

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@ml@ecoevo.social Never. I'm in computer science.

When I was a PhD student there were courses that touched on ethics, but none were ever required and I never took one myself. Since finishing school I've encountered """ethics""" professionally, but this has taken the form of compliance-based ethics training, which is farcical. One of those required us to snitch on our coworkers if we knew they were using marijuana because that was a requirement of the federal government grant that covered the project. This was framed as the ethical choice because someone experiencing reefer madness might do bad things!!!
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@ml Never. MSc computer science, Sweden. MSc computer forensics, Scotland. The closest I got was law classes emphasising how to present forensic facts in a neutral manner, leaving determination of guilt to the court.
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