Project BEEP



The BioEthics Education Project is an interactive website and virtual-learning environment for secondary school science teachers and students. It is a teaching resource developed to highlight the moral, ethical, social, economic, environmental and technological implications and applications of biology.  The BEEP has been formed with the aim to ensure that 21st century learners must also learn about ethical issues prevailing concerning our ecosystem while learning science at the school. 
This website is particularly suited for high-school students and allows them to learn about the bio ethical issues through individual critical thinking and by discussions with others. 

The term ‘Bioethics’ is derived from combining Biological Science+ Ethics= Bioethics. The core idea behind ‘Bioethics’ is that it concerns  many decisions we make, based on thinking of what is right or wrong, about the biosphere, ecosystems, habitats, environment, organisms,  organs, tissues, cells or even at the molecular level.

There are many resources in this website for the students to develop their skills in analyzing, discussing and creating arguments for the ethical issues in the biology.  The topics include Genes DNA and Reproduction, Genetic Technology, Human Health, Environment issues (Pollution, Climate change, Conservation, etc.) and Animal Ethics.  All the topics begin by addressing some key questions to consider that would prompt students to think critically.

It also has a page that helps students understand the role or interplay between science, society and scientists. Here students can find; how the  scientists work or find an evidence for a theory, what are the social pressures under which scientists work, to name a few. What appeared most interesting to me is the topic devoted to explaining the 'Maths behind Science'; where students can find most common mathematical problems associated with understanding scientific arguments.  

In addition to these many topics, one can scroll down on the left to see many resources for the teachers to be incorporated into the classroom. Some of the interesting resources to be used in the designing of lesson plans are; how to work with discussion, Online discussions in BEEP, Case Studies, Video Clips, Concept Mapping, Thought Experiments, Assessment, interesting lesson Ideas, further reading  and many other useful websites.

The BEEP project is actually centred at the Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol. Besides being a teacher resource, BEEP is also a research project aimed to investigate the effectiveness of online discussion to be used successfully to support school science teachers. It also has a Physics counterpart (PEEP) where it addresses ethical issues concerning Physics, some examples for that are; radiation, space, weapons or energy, to name a few.


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