ENGG111: Professional Ethics Video Task

Introduction

The study of engineering ethics within an engineering course helps students prepare for their
professional lives. A specific advantage for engineering students who learn about ethics is that they
develop clarity in their understanding and thought about ethical issues and the practice in which
they arise. The study of ethics helps students to develop widely applicable skills in communication,
reasoning and reflection. These skills enhance students' abilities and help them engage with other
aspects of the engineering programme such as group work and work placements.

For this task you will work in your DBT groups to examine a historical case of an engineering
company making questionable ethical decisions, producing a video that demonstrates your findings.
This work will highlight some of the ethical issues that you may face as a professional engineer and
demonstrate how using an ethical framework can help to guide your decision making process.

Learning Outcomes

 Understand the ethical responsibility of engineers and develop the ability to identify ethical
elements when making design choices.
 Be aware of various theoretical frameworks and understand how the Statement of Ethical
Principles can be applied to resolve ethical dilemmas.
 Develop key transferable skills such as research, collaboration, digital fluency, and creativity.

This assignment is worth 5% of the overall module

This task should take no more than 10 hours to complete

The Assignment will be set Monday 4 th December and will be due

Friday 15th December at 23:59
Task Description

Using digital technologies, produce a short (3-5 minutes) video that effectively communicates your
understanding of the key elements of the Ford Pinto scandal. With reference to each of the four
fundamental principles that make up the Statement of Ethical Principles, identify the ethical
failings of either senior management and/or the engineering design team, and discuss how your
group would hypothetically deal with each failing in a more ethical way.

Before starting the Task you should work through the content on Canvas that introduces ethics
and integrity, theoretical ethical frameworks and the Statement of Ethical Principles.
What should we include in our video?

 An overview of Ford Pinto scandal – What happened? What were the driving factors? What
was the impact?
 A summary of what you think were the key ethical failings.
 Link at least one ethical failing to each of the four fundamental principles of the Statement
of Ethical Principles (Honesty and integrity; Accuracy and Rigour; Leadership and
Communication; Respect for life law the environment and public good). For example “in
making decision X, senior management did not hold paramount the health and safety of
others”
 For each of the ethical failings identified above, comment on how your team could have
avoided making the wrong decision.
 Every group member must produce at least one slide and add narration. REMEMBER TO
ADD YOUR NAME TO YOUR SLIDES

For more detail on the requirements for the task, see lecture slides & video.

How should we create our video

You are required to create a short video presentation (no more than 5 minutes) detailing your work.
The video should be a screen capture of a power point presentation that includes an audio recording
of you describing your work.

Your video presentation should closely follow a PechaKucha or Lightning Talk philosophy; short
presentations that articulate a topic in a quick, insightful, and clear manner. You should aim to
convey key information about your project in a concise and efficient manner whilst maintaining the
attention of your audience.

There are a number of ways to record your video, it is up to your group to decide on the method
that best suites you. You can find detailed instructions in the “How to Record Your Presentation
and Submit it to Canvas” document.

Marking Criteria
Quality of Delivery:
Clarity of voice; absence of mannerisms and colloquialisms; audience engagement;
/20
demonstration of enthusiasm and knowledge; extent to which speakers elaborated on
content of slides rather than reading what is on the screen.
Understanding of Ethical Topics
Does the presentation demonstrate an understanding of; the Ford Pinto scandal; the
/40
ethical failings of Ford and; how the failings are linked to the statement of ethical
principals? Are reasonable solutions to avoid these failings presented?
Structure and Content:
Did the presentation concisely describe the topic? Was there a clear narrative? Was
/20
there content at an appropriate level to the topic? How well did the presentation
stimulate and maintain audience interest?
Quality of Visual Aids:
Was the design, format and animation of the slides consistent and professional? How
/20
well did the slides support the spoken narrative? How well was data presented?
Were figures of appropriate size and format?