The Fall semester Bioethics elective will be an exploration of how the intersection between morals and science cause deep ethical conflicts in society. On the one hand, as humans continue to refine their technological capacity to modify nature – from the level of an individual organism’s genetic code to the global climate feedback systems of the earth – these technologies will have positive or negative impacts on the nature of our bodies and ecosystems. On the other hand, as larger sections of the world’s societies become more inclusive and diverse in their social composition and organization, disagreement over the ethical implications of these technologies will also increase. Therefore, it is a matter of survival for human societies to improve their moral/ethical skills in scientific reasoning. This course in Bioethics seeks to train students to address these ethical problems responsibly as present and future consumers, voters, and policy-makers, as well as potential scientists, health practitioners, and other professionals.
The spring semester Forensic Science elective, or Criminalistics, the study of science in law, is an ideal extension of integrated science, biology, geology, physics, and chemistry. This class is designed to challenge students with topics such as fingerprinting, DNA analysis, blood typing and spattering, trajectories (for ballistics as well as blood spattering), comparative anatomy, and chemical analysis of drugs, poisons, and trace evidence, and the dynamics of Physics. The teaching goals of class include the following: exposing students to sophisticated laboratory equipment, exposing students to the significance of physical evidence, educating students to the admissibility of evidence into a court of law, encouraging electronic searching methods, developing writing and speaking skills, encouraging inquiry, cooperation and authentic assessment, demonstrating the experimental limitations on accuracy and observation.
