Elementary School Level

The SEATS initiative at the elementary level is a four-week course in which students learn how to debate ethical issues in STEM. In the first week the students review successful debate tactics, learn how to approach an ethical issue, and choose their topic for the final debate from a variety of ethical issues arising from current advancements in STEM. Previous topic choices have included autonomous vehicles, the gene-editing of mosquitoes to prevent the spread of malaria, as well as technology graveyards and their effect on the environment.

The students are then guided through the processes of individual research and writing their speeches. In the final week a panel of SEATS judges oversee the debate, score the speakers using the Congressional method, and meet with students individually to discuss their performance.

Middle and High School Level 

At the middle and high school levels, students participate in a series of role-playing modules in which students explore how modern advances in STEM have leapfrogged our ethics discussions and standards. Students draw connections between the STEM advancements and pop culture before splitting into teams and analyzing the characters or groups they are role-playing. 

From here, students role play in teams, react to fast-paced scenario developments as well as the actions of other teams, and learn how ethics can become alarmingly flexible in desperate circumstances.