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Thank you for participating in TIRP service-learning outreach!
Your reports are the basis for academic credit. Whether or not you are seeking a credit option, reports are required as a record of your teaching complex issues in local schools.
1. For each report, select Post Reply. (Do not select New Topic)
2. Copy/paste from your Word file and save a copy until after the semester is over.
3. Before pasting, confirm that you have met the minimum of at least 500 words.
4. Each report must be submitted within 3 days after each session.
Remember:
a. The webboard is public. Do not refer to students by name; instead call them Student A, B or C. If you include names, commentary or observations, you will need to revise your post.
b. Guiding questions for reports are provided in section F of the Requirements & Guidelines.
c. If you include too much focus on the step-by-step process of the lesson rather than content, you may be asked to revise your report.
A CALIS staff member will review your report each week and post a message below of the scoring for your performance evaluation.
We welcome any questions or concerns you have about scoring.
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Session 1
On time: 3/3
Substantive: 6/6
Student specifics: 6/6
Total: 15/15
Great first session, Sarah. Excellent student examples. It sounds like the class is having an engaged discussion. Good connections made to both America and the international community. - AS 10/3
Session 2
On time: 2/3
Substantive: 6/6
Student specifics: 6/6
Total: 14/15
Another great report. Sounds like a really interesting discussion with a lot of different perspectives. It is nice to see you thinking about making the session better by adding more visuals. Keep it up. - AS 10/17
Session 3
On time: 2/3
Substantive: 6/6
Student specifics: 6/6
Total: 14/15
Nice report. I like that the students are sharing a wide variety of opinions making for a very engaging conversation. - AS 10/17
Session 4
On time: 3/3
Substantive: 6/6
Student specifics: 6/6
Total: 15/15
Great final report, Sarah. Cool that the students were able to share different reasons and I like that you started with a review of the principles. Hope to see you back with TIRP next semester! -AS 10/29
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For our first lesson, we introduced the topic of ethics and human rights by making our leading questions, “What are human rights?” and “What are ethics?”. We wanted to give the students a good baseline for our future lessons in order for them to gain a better understanding of the information.
We began our lesson with the Human Rights Squares warm up activity, asking the kids to walk around the room and interact with as many other students as possible. We also asked them to switch up groups in case they stuck around the same group of people in order to talk to as many people as possible. This activity was a perfect warm up for the students because it gave them a chance to interact and stay interested in the topic as opposed to lecturing them. After a short period of time, we called the students back into the larger group and discussed some squares they found particularly interesting. The squares that we focused on the most were ones the students themselves could relate to, such as the square “Rights your parents have which you don’t”, in which Student A discussed the right to vote and Student B discussed driving. Along with this, we tried to open up the discussion to not only the more light-hearted squares (such as singers who sing about human rights, which prompted a lot of student participation discussing their favorite rappers such as Kendrick Lamar and Drake), but also for the more serious squares. We wanted to see if the students had opinions on or knew anything about human rights not only in America but in other countries as well. The main topics the students knew about was countries where people are tortured, Student C mentioning Mexico and Student D mentioning North Korea as two examples. After this activity, the students were more comfortable with our presence and were introduced to the topic enough for us to move onto the next activity, the Three Ethical Perspectives.
The Three Ethical Perspectives activity was an excellent choice for a follow up from the Human Rights Squares Activity, since the students were engaged and seemed more alert once starting this activity. We started out this activity by beginning with what the students thought ethics meant. Student A mentioned how it was “right vs. wrong”, and Student B mentioned how it is “the way you behave”. We opened up the discussion and, in order to relate to their personal lives, asked the students to think of a potential ethical dilemma they face. Student C brought up the ethical dilemma of going to school or not, and we used this prompt as an example that the students could relate to and was applicable to their lives in order to make the meaning of ethics clearer. We asked the students whether they believed not going to school was a bad ethical decision, and Student D mentioned that “his parents force him to go” so essentially, he has no choice in the matter. This was an interesting point to bring up, as going to school for the students isn’t so much an ethical decision as it is following orders from their parents. After this, we started with the two trolley scenarios, where the students had to pick whether killing 1 person or 4 people was the ethical decision. Student A said he would “just kill them all”, while another Student B said that “killing 1 person was the best decision because its less lives”. The general consensus of the class was that killing 1 person was the best decision, since it would be the best for the greater good. The images and anecdote of the trolley scenarios engaged the students and kept them interested, which gave us a good response and good participation from the students. The next scenario we went through was the organ scenario, where we opened up a discussion on whether killing one person for organs that could save 5 lives was the best choice, or if the doctor should let his 5 patients die. Student A brought up the point that a “doctor saves lives, so he shouldn’t kill someone”. After going through this scenario, we moved onto the last scenario, which was the Holmes scenario. This one brought on a lot of discussion from the students, and there were many differing opinions throughout the class. Student A believed that it was “good because everybody would’ve drowned”, while Student B argued that “Holmes could’ve thrown himself over in order to save the rest of the people”. Many students didn’t understand why he would throw his best friend overboard, and many agreed he was a bad person. We ended with bringing up the definitions of the Three Ethical Perspectives and introducing Utilitarianism, Rule-Based Ethics, and Virtue Ethics and asking the students to remember these for the upcoming weeks.
Overall, I think the students were very engaged with the activities we had planned out for them and I think that we will get even more participation the more we use visual and interactive examples. We hope to continue getting participation from the students in upcoming lessons and also hope that they become more comfortable with us as the weeks go on and grasped the basic understanding of ethics and human rights.
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Our second session focused on the questions, “What is an ethical decision” and, “What makes a decision right?”, which we explored through the China One Child Policy activity.
For a warm up, we wanted to refresh the students on what we learned in the previous session, so we asked the question “What is ethics?”. Student A said “It is choosing between decisions”, while student B answered “it is Right vs. Wrong”. This got the conversation started and got the kids more engaged with the lesson. We started this activity with Scenario A and Scenario B, which begins by discussing the ethics behind someone cheating in order to get an internship position. When we asked for a vote on what the students would do, 5 voted that they wouldn’t snitch on their friend, even though they plagiarized. Student C said that they would snitch on their friend only if it affected them getting the job. It seems that the students have more loyalty towards their friend than they would towards whatever company they are interning for. When moving on to Scenario B, a follow up to Scenario A, we examined another scenario where the boss discussed how the company did not tolerate plagiarism and whether you, as the intern, should tell the boss what happened. Student D said that they would snitch because it would benefit them and, if they don’t snitch, it could potentially lead to not getting a job offer in the future. Also, Student D said it would be the right thing to do to tell the boss what your friend had done. We then went on to label their decisions and introduce the idea of justice vs. mercy. Mercy would have been not telling the boss what happened and instead being loyal to your friend, whereas justice would have been telling your boss the truth. We explained this idea to the students, which would Segway into the main activity.
We started off the main activity with a discussion of the pros and cons of having children. Student A said a benefit of having children would be the added welfare you get, and Student B said that having a family you love could be rewarding. Student C said that, opposing Student C, it would be a con to have children in case you didn’t like them or they turned out bad. Student A also discussed the extra expenses children cause as a con to having children. We then went on to describe the situation in China, where families were only allowed to have one child due to the overpopulation problem. We separated them into groups and asked them to discuss among themselves whether the decision to enact this policy was community based or individual based, long term or short term, or justice or mercy. We let them discuss and went around the room helping the students make sure they understood the terminology and what we were asking them to identity. After about 10 minutes of thinking amongst themselves, we came back to the larger group and asked for some opinions from the students. Student A thought that the One Child Policy was community based as opposed to individually based, since the government was making a universal law stating how many kids every family could have. Student B argued that this was a long term goal instead of a short term goal because it was put in place for a long period of time and was meant to solve the problem of population over a period of many years. Lastly, Student C said that it was justice as opposed to mercy because the government needed to solve this problem and they had to do what they could in order to make sure the entire population was not suffering. Lastly, we opened up a discussion about India, stating that it could be very likely that India could go through the same overpopulation problem China did in the near future. We asked the kids to split into groups and talk about whether India should enact the same One Child Policy that China did and why. There were split opinions in the class, as some said they should and some said they should. Student A said they should because they will eventually run out of land and resources, leaving the people in poverty and worse condition if the population grows even more. Student B said that India should not enact this policy because the government should not decide how many kids they should have.
Overall, this session went well and the students were engaged with the activities and material. However, I think the lack of any visual pictures lost some of their interest in this specific activity. In the previous session, due to the many visuals we used in our activity, the students were more engaged and interested. We should make sure to include visuals in every one of our activities in order to keep their attention. I think the students are interested in the material and willing to learn from us, but we need to use tools in order to make sure they stay attentive and engaged throughout the entire session.
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In our third session, we wanted to bring in more real world examples in order to ask the question, “What are moral virtues?” and figure out how we could make programs and institutions ethical.
First, we started the class with The Dark Knight activity, where we watched a scene from the Dark Knight and tried to figure out what moral virtues are through it. The scene was the scene in which the Joker put detonators on two boats- one full of civilians and one full of prisoners. The boat had the detonator for the bomb attached to the other boat, so each boat had to choose the other’s fate. The Joker wanted to create disorder and wanted them both to prove their true selfish nature by blowing up the other boat in order to save their own lives. After watching this scene, we wanted to make sure the students understood what the scene was portraying and how it related to our sessions. We had Student A describe what happened in the scene, and, to further their understanding, we also came up with our own example. We set up a scenario where the class we taught was on one boat and another class from their high school was in another boat, and we asked what they would do. Student B didn’t want to make that type of decision because they wanted to be a good person but also didn’t want to die. We discussed potential reasons why the passengers of both boats chose what they did and we then brought up the 3 ethical perspectives as a review.
After opening up the discussion, we moved onto our next activity, which was the Red Market activity. We opened up the activity by listening to an audio clip of the NPR to make it easier for the students to follow along. After we listened to the audio clip, we then asked the students some comprehension questions to understand what the Red Market is. We asked if the class had heard of the Red Market prior to our class, and Student A said they hadn’t heart of it. Then, Student B said that it was the market for selling blood and organs. After our comprehension questions, we put the potential problems with the Red Market on the board. Student C said there could be potential health problems and safety problems, because there is no guarantee that the organ was healthy. After discussing potential problems with the Red Market, we then split up the students into smaller groups in order to discuss the questions “Should the Red Market be allowed?” and “Is it ethical?”. After moving around the room and prompting the students to discuss more, we opened it up to the bigger group to bring together the different ideas. Student A said that it should be allowed because it saves people’s lives and that it’s their body so they can do with it what they want. Student B said it should be allowed but it should be more regulated in order to be ethical. Student B also said that the donor should be picked specifically and that there should be more regulations on the health of the person donating. Student C said it shouldn’t be allowed because there shouldn’t be a price on the human body in any way, since it could cause future problems.
Overall, I think the Red Market activity really drew in the students’ attention and, by the end, we were able to have a very good discussion about their opinions. Although the students were more talkative and loud than previous weeks, by the end the activity drew them in and they ended up all participating in the discussion. Although it was a difficult activity to explain and teach, I think it was really beneficial for the students and it got them thinking about real world problems they might not have known about previously.
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For our last session, we decided to end with the Villager’s Dilemma Scenario, which we thought would be a perfect activity to bring together all the concepts we’ve been teaching these past few weeks. We asked the question, “How do you approach ethical decision making?”, which ties into the Villager’s Dilemma scenario, as the students have to come up with how to approach an ethical decision.
Before we began our lesson, we started off with a review of the Three Ethical Perspectives- consequence, virtue, and rules. This was a crucial element of our teachings, and we wanted to review it before starting with the Villager’s Dilemma, which tied into this topic as well. Although the students needed to be reminded of the Three Perspectives, they seemed to have a grasp of what they entailed.
Next, we began the Villager’s Dilemma exercise, and we read out the scenario and offered different possible options that the students could choose, and in order to further think about this we had the students split up into pairs. The 5 options the students had were killing 1 to save 9, walking away from the scenario entirely, killing none but protesting, taking away the gun and killing the commander, and offering yourself to save all 10 people. After talking for about 5 minutes, we came back to the big group and had students voice out some of their opinions. Student A mentioned that they should find the bad people among the group of 10 and only have those be the ones who are killed. Student B said that they should have the prisoners offer themselves if they are guilty or old. Then, after discussing in the larger group, we had the students split into small groups and walked around helping to prompt discussion and deeper conversations. The students were very engaged with this activity and not only disagreed among each other but also came up with interesting perspectives on the issue not presented. Once the students discussed in their small groups for a while, we again came back to a big group discussion and had the groups share what they would do in this scenario. One table argued that they should volunteer to kill an elderly person in the group since they have lived a full life and have nothing to lose. Another group decided that they would offer themselves to save the 10 people. Most groups had different opinions, and this showed us that the students were thinking for themselves and not only copying others in the class. They were not afraid to share their differing opinions, and this prompted an even more stimulating discussion. We then took a class-wide vote to see how many people would do what, and the results were: 9 people said they would kill 1 to save 9, 2 people said they would walk away, 0 people said they would kill none and protest (Student C, in regards to this argument, rebutted saying that they would not do this because it might further aggravate the commander which could backfire greatly), 4 people said they would take the gun and kill the commander, and 5 people said they would offer themselves only if it was their family or people they cared about they were saving. Then, we connected each of these options to the different Ethical Perspectives we discussed in the beginning of class, and we decided that killing 1 to save 9 would be maximizing the good (consequential ethics), walking away would be following the rules (rule-based ethics), and offering yourself to save the 10 would be being a good person (virtue based ethics). Before jumping into the college questions we saved for the end of class, we asked the students what they think of the most when making ethical decisions. Student A said they would try to maximize the good of everybody when making a decision, while Student B said he would follow the rules because he didn’t want to end up going to prison.
We ended the class with questions about college, which the students had a lot of. I believe that this was one of the most beneficial parts of this program, because many of the questions the students had were along the lines of “is college worth it?”, and being able to tell these students that college is worth it for their future was rewarding. I wanted to encourage them to go to college in their own time and to not be discouraged by financial needs, which was another big concern of the students. Overall, the students became more and more engaged with the exercises as the weeks went on, and I think they gained more knowledge on ethics and how to make ethical decisions in their own lives. I believe this will be a good foundation for further studies and for the rest of their lives. It was an amazing experience and I think it benefitted both the students and us.
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