Case Studies: Ethics in the Classroom

  1. First create a short skit related to your topic [each group has a different topic].
  2. Next, discuss your interpretations and impressions of this topic.
  3. Finally, prepare to present your skit and summarize your discussions for the rest of the class.
The following are adapted from:
http://temp.onlineethics.org/edu/precol/classroom/lesson2.html

Exam Cheating Steven has studied many hours for a biology midterm exam. He is confident that he will do well. He has lunch period just before the exam. He finishes quickly and gets to the classroom several minutes before the other students or the teacher. On his way to his desk he notices that one of his classmates has extensive notes related to the exam written on a desk. Since the desks are moveable he replaces the desk with the writing with one from the classroom next door. Steven is amused by the bewildered expression on the student's face when they sit down and recognize that the desk has been switched.

Changing Data Jane is making electrical measurements in a physics laboratory. She is a good student and is confident that she has set up the circuit properly. When she tries to do the required calculations to verify the formulas in her physics book she finds that the data she took appears to be incorrect. She suspects that one of the electrical components she was given is not working properly. Her teacher, Mr. Grim, is busy helping some of the weaker students so Jane decides not to report the problem. Instead she does the mathematical calculations to determine what a correct set of data would be and simply changes the data to match what the calculations.

Loaning Data Pete, Brooke and Lisa are laboratory partners in their chemistry class. Yesterday Lisa was absent. This required Pete and Brooke to work very diligently to complete the experiment during the lab period so they could hand in the report in class today. Today Lisa has returned to school after being ill. She meets her lab partners on the way into school in the morning and asks them for the data from yesterday's experiment so she can write it up during study period and hand it in. Pete is willing to give Lisa the data, but Brooke objects.

Group Work Janet is putting a lot of effort into her final programming project. She has neglected the course earlier in the year and has chosen a difficult topic to impress her teacher and get a good grade. Her friend Saresh, who is a very good student, is working on the same topic. Janet asks whether she can work cooperatively with Saresh, as permitted by her teacher. Janet then puts in little further effort, knowing she can rely on Saresh to do a good job. Since he is Janet's friend, Saresh raises no objections to putting her name on the report and sharing the grade.