Collaborative Research: Incubation Project: Leveraging the Ethics Bowl Framework for Artificial Intelligence Ethics Education

This incubation project will advance integrated approaches to artificial intelligence (AI) ethics education in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs. The research team will seek to transform materials from the ethics bowl competition, which is traditionally an extracurricular activity focused on research, consultation, collaboration, and debate, into structured classroom tools. This will help instructors to cultivate the understanding that students have of AI ethics. The project aims to build a strong community foundation and develop capacity for larger educational initiatives. The project will create and evaluate instructional resources like case studies, instructor guides, and active learning assignments. These tools will provide practical, scenario-based learning experiences to enhance student skills in ethical reasoning, teamwork, and communication. The team will develop and pilot sample resources with participants during a professional conference, workshop the resources at a two-day meeting, and refine and disseminate the resources after the workshop. The project focuses on STEM ethics education, specifically AI ethics. Project goals are to (1) recalibrate STEM education to incorporate ethical reasoning with professional competencies like teamwork, research, and communication, addressing a critical gap in AI education; (2) equip STEM faculty with a new pedagogy to engage students in ethical discourse and analysis; and (3) set new benchmarks in AI ethics education by providing a replicable model for integrating ethical decision-making into STEM disciplines. The impacts of the project include enhancing AI ethics understanding among students, expanding the reach and inclusivity of ethics education by co-creating materials with a broad collection of institutions, and producing deliverables like pedagogical materials, online resources, and community engagement platforms. The project will involve a collaboration with government, industry, and community partners. The curriculum produced will address current ethical challenges in AI and equip students with relevant skills for various professional settings. This project is funded through the ER2 program by the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.