Ethics of Science

by Alissa Gumbs
HTH, San Diego CA


Project Description

In the next six weeks, each 3-person group will do a research project on one topic related to ethical issues in the scientific world, including background on relevant scientific processes, historical factors, and ethical implications. The project will culminate in a Science Ethics Conference, at which you will present a final product of your design to an audience of school groups, university professors, researchers and community members. This event will take place Thursday, June 5 and is mandatory for all students. During the process of creating the final product, we are having: project proposals, workshop proposals, weekly check ins with Anne or Spencer, and finish end product.



Reflection

Throughout this project, I have had a delightful time trying to finish this project on time and dealing with my partners. My partners were Melissa Wendell and Gino Milan. Our topic was on industrial workers exposure to chemicals. The roles during this project were: Gino was to research on the effects on the cause and effects on environment, Melissa was to research on the cause and effects on chemicals, and I was to research on the cause and effects on health hazards on workers and the world. One thing that caught my attention was the fact that my partners worked well together even though at times one person was left out but we still pulled through the project with a great final product. One problem that came up was that we wanted to print out a human body in color at Kinko's but it would have cost $75 and I didn't want to pay that much money. A solution that we came up was that Melissa would print out the human body in black and white and the body parts in color. That worked out really well but then last minute we got information that Dr. Valvra, 11th grade biology teacher, had a color print that print out huge colored photos but we just stuck to what we had. The things I learned were more on my subject of industrial workers exposure to chemicals and how it really affects our bodies just by being exposed to certain chemicals. Overall, I liked this project especially the conference being that it was very organized and the workshops were very fun speaking to 8th and 9th graders even though sometimes the kids didn't know how to control themselves. Also this is our last project of the year so I'm happy that it’s over with.