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Teaching Engineering Ethics in the Classroom through a Town Hall Meeting Activity
Engineers often contribute to projects that impact many people and have ethical implications. Some may even move to a career of political advocacy and policy-making. However, most engineering curricula have a strongly technical focus and do not require students to think critically about ethical issues related to engineering. To bridge this gap, we developed a classroom-based town hall meeting activity that demonstrates the ethical issues that may arise when engineers are advocating for or helping craft public policies. Our town hall meeting scenario, which was set in a fictional tourist town called Rainbow Town, divided a class of twenty engineering students into groups of engineers, politicians, and voters. There were two opposing political groups and two engineering groups with competing interests. The voters had individual characters with varying careers and objectives. The town hall meeting was a debate on whether Rainbow Town should undertake a construction project that would bring jobs to the city, but could potentially adversely impact fish population at the town’s natural heritage site, the main source of income for the town. The objective of the activity varied based on what role each student was playing. The politicians’ job was to further the objectives of their own party while simultaneously keeping their voter base happy. The engineers’ job was to help voters make an informed decision about which policy (or party) to vote for, while helping politicians craft the right policy. The voters’ job was to protect their own livelihoods. Despite the simplicity of the town hall meeting scenario, the students wholeheartedly donned the mantle of their assigned role, taking the objectives of their role seriously. At the post-activity debrief, students commented that the activity was harder on the engineers since they had to prove everything with facts, but the politician groups did not.Cockrell School of Engineerin
La Grange Comprehensive Plan 2018 - 2038
In the Fall of 2017, the City of La Grange and Texas Target Communities partnered to create
a task force to represent the community. The task force was integral to the planning process,
contributing the thoughts, desires, and opinions of community members—as well as their
enthusiasm about La Grange’s future. This fifteen-month planning process ended in August
2018. The result of this collaboration is the La Grange Comprehensive Plan, which is the
official policy guide for the community’s growth over the next twenty years.La Grange Comprehensive Plan 2018 - 2038 provides a guide for the future growth of the City.
This document was developed by Texas Target Communities in partnership with the City of
La Grange.Texas Target Communitie