Education Development Center wins NIH contract to develop high school bioethics curriculum

According to a press release that just went out a few hours ago,

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a two-year contract to Education Development Center (EDC) to develop a curriculum in bioethics to be used in high school biology courses. The curriculum materials will be created as a supplement to biology textbooks and, when completed, will be made available free to schools across the country. The Office of Science Education and the Department of Clinical Bioethics at NIH awarded the contract.

EDC researchers will work with a team of ethicists, scientists and teachers to develop instructional materials on topics of social importance in the life sciences. These are likely to include such subjects as the nature of bioethics, clinical trials, vaccination, genetic enhancement and genetic screening. The goal of these materials is to have students begin to develop their thinking about ethics and to relate their learning in biology to real life issues.

You can read the full press quote here.

I admit, my first thought is "oh, working with ethicists? Who?" I do think that who is involved will determine my enthusiasm for the project as a whole, simply becuase it has the potential to be either very good, or a nightmare.