Measuring the Impact of Ethics Education in a Physics Course

For over thirty years, Eastern Michigan University has offered a course entitled “Ethical Issues in Physics.” We have surveyed individuals who completed this course during the 2004-2022 period, receiving responses from 36%, with a fairly uniform distribution of responses during this time period. The majority of respondents indicated present employment in a STEM field. Overall, the results suggest that students retain memory of the course’s main themes even many years after completion. When asked if STEM ethics education is important, 90% of respondents indicated it is very or extremely important. Three-quarters of the respondents indicated the EMU course was moderately or highly important. A similar portion indicated it had a positive impact on how they interact with their colleagues and that it increased their confidence in resolving ethical dilemmas. Most respondents agreed that their employer highly values ethical behavior. We comment on these results in the context of the EP3 recommendations for ethics education and of a study¹ that calls into question the extent to which physics departments have implemented EP3 recommendations.

1. Muschong, Allison and Thomsen, Marshall. 2025. A Survey of Ethics Courses in U.S. STEM Bachelor of Science Programs. Online Ethics Center. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18130/gtwx-w254.