Labs Don’t Have To Be Wet

 

Roberta Williams

Tested Studies in Laboratory Teaching, 2000, Volume 21

Abstract

It is difficult in large non-majors biology courses to stimulate discussion and debate, yet today there are so many issues open to debate. My attempt to expose students to some of these issues is to devote a lab session to bioethical issues. This is accomplished with a poster session. Midway through the semester the students form groups of two to four students. The group picks an article from Due Consideration, Controversy in the Age of Medical Miracles, by Arthur Caplan. There are fifteen articles from which to choose. In each lab section, each group must have a different article. The articles deal with bioethical issues that have been in the popular press such as genetically altered food, celebrities and transplants, cloning, olestra, infertile men, AIDS vaccine, sperm from the dead, comatose patients that have been raped, and abandoned embryos.

Keywords:  ethics, ethical issues

University of Nebraska, Lincoln (1999)