NWABR’s Bioethics Programs Featured in Journal Article

NWABR's bioethics programs received recognition in a recent journal article from Miller-McCune for both their quality and for their impacts on teachers and students:

Fifth Period: Life and Death Decision-making
Ethical quandaries at the nexus of science, technology and society are making it into high school curricula

The article provides one example of how NWABR provides an environment to explore emerging issues critical to the future of biomedical research - by bringing the dialogue about research to middle and high school classrooms.  It also describes the growth of our programs and the enthusiasm that educators have for our resources, as evidenced by their attendance at our presentations:

"These days, the NWABR’s Jeanne Ting Chowning packs standing-room-only crowds of teachers into her bioethics training sessions at meetings of the National Science Teachers Association and National Association of Biology Teachers. In 2003, she offered one or two sessions with a dozen instructors; she’s since doubled the number of sessions, and each attracts 50-70 teachers, she said. And though it’s difficult to say exactly how many instructors are now teaching bioethics, Chowning has watched annual downloads of the group’s curriculum double in the four years it’s been online."

The article also mentions our popular Stem Cell curriculum, one of the few comprehensive teaching resources to address embryonic stem cell research, and an example of how NWABR cultivates understanding and trust in biomedical research through dialogue and education. Lastly, it stresses the emphasis we place on developing student reasoning skills:

"While it’s difficult to quantify the effect of the programs (students are not tested on bioethics on state proficiency exams), the NWABR said in a grant report that 70 to 90 percent of teachers who taught bioethics believed their students’ critical thinking skills had improved and that they had become more open-minded as a result."

Our bioethics curricular materials and teacher professional development workshops are made possible through funding from a Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) from the National Center for Research Resources at the National Institutes of Health.