The ethical issue of biomedical engineering
Chen Xu
Computer Engineering Technology
BMET1101
Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity
In BMET1101, Introduction to Biomedical Engineering Technology, different subareas of biomedical engineering are introduced. Discuss the new development of prosthetic arm, watch the video of mind controlled robotic arm. Ask students to research about different aspects, such as biomechanics, neural engineering, and biomedical instrumentation, medical imaging. Then move to cyborg (short for "cybernetic organism") in the novel and movies, which is a being with both organic and biomechatronic body parts, such as iron man, spider man, and Darth Vader. Discuss the ethical issues, such as will the artificial devices may affect personal identity and dignity, can human still be held morally responsible for their behavior when their brain has been engineered by others to function in certain way?
Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?
Inspire students to explore the development of technology and critically think about the limit of technology.
Timing: At what point in the lesson or semester do you use this activity? How much classroom time do you devote to it? How much out-of-class time is expected?
At the end of semester. Maybe discuss some topics in one lecture, then let students do more research, revisit the topics again after two or three weeks.
Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?
Show some videos, and introduce the background. It’s an open-ended question, write or present as a project.
Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?
Breadth of knowledge, lifelong learning, inquiry and analysis, integrate learning, ethics and value.
Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?
Still in course design stage.
Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These can be links to pages or posts on the OpenLab.
Please share a helpful link to a pages or post on the OpenLab
