About

About the High School Bioethics Project

Since 2001, the University of Pennsylvania Department of Medical Ethics & Health Policy's High School Bioethics Project has worked to improve secondary education through bioethics pedagogy and has enjoyed success and recognition among science teachers, administrators, and students, particularly those in the greater Philadelphia region.

We believe bioethics has the potential to not only introduce students to ethical choices they will face in their lives, but also stimulate understanding of scientific advances and methods, thereby contributing to lifelong interest in biomedical science.

Our project operates within four domains: teacher training, student education, web resource development, and policy development, utilizing the internet for broad dissemination and collaborative development of project initiatives. Each year, we offer several instructional workshops, intensive summer courses, teacher fellowships, and student internships.

Additionally, staff deliver dozens of lectures and outreach events. Project staff members also partner with high school teachers who wish to develop bioethics curricula for use in science classes or syllabi for stand-alone bioethics courses.

Coverage in Science Magazine

A new project at the University of Pennsylvania will help teachers tackle topics in neuroethics, such as potential forensic and military uses of brain-imaging technology and the care of patients in a persistent vegetative state. Funded by the Dana Foundation and led by bioethics graduate student Dominic Sisti, the program will supplement a high school bioethics project begun several years ago by Penn bioethicist Arthur Caplan. The group is developing a neuroethics primer and will run workshops for local teachers. Science 322 (5899):186-187

About the Department of Medical Ethics & Health Policy

The Departmart of Medical Ethics & Health Policy is a leader in bioethics research and its deployment in the ethical, efficient, and compassionate practice of the life sciences and medicine. The Department has become a world-renowned educational and research enterprise that employs over 20 full and part-time faculty with appointments in a number of University of Pennsylvania schools and departments including medicine, law, nursing, business, education, philosophy, psychology, sociology, religious studies, public policy and public health.

Partners & Friends

High Schools	The Episcopal Academy, Merion, PA  Friends School Mullica Hill, Mullica Hill, NJ  The Peddie School, Hightstown, NJ  William Penn Charter, Philadelphia, PA  Princeton High School, Princeton, NJ  Bergen County Academies, Hackensack, NJ
Media Partners	Discovery News
Universities & Institutes	The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME  Bioethics-in-Action  In partnership with members of the Neuroethics Society  Personal Genetics Education Project, Harvard Medical School  The Franklin Institute  Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences, Michigan State University  The Scattergood Program for the Applied Ethics of Behavioral Health  Phila. Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development (PHENND)  VaccineEthics.org
Funding	The Squire Family Foundation (2008-2010)  The Dana Foundation  (2008-2010)  National Science Foundation through a sub-contract with The Jackson Laboratory (2004-2009)  The Episcopal Academy (2005-2007)  AstraZeneca, USA (2004-2006)  Walter and Elise Haas Fund (2001-2003)  U.S. Department of Education (2001)