John R. Hoffman is a Professor of Biology, public speaker and a scientist examining the recovery of the nervous system after injury. Since 2006 he has written several unpublished manuscripts and he is currently working on the first Nathaniel Smythe novel and short story collection. He spends his spare time with his family and running.

Scientific Debate Project

The final project for the US275 Scientific Ethics course is a group exercise to study and present an ethical dilemma posed by a scientific controversy. This will take place as an asynchronous written debate in which the members of the group will provide their classmates with the scientific background necessary to understand the basis for the conflict. The members of the group will then prepare a series of arguments to convince their classmates to either accept or reject a proposed resolution to address the ethical dilemma.

This video goes over the instructions for the final project in the US275 Scientific Ethics course. This written debate will be completed as a small group assignment. The handout for this lecture can also be downloaded and printed.

Debate Instructions

Scientific Background – Instructions and Scoring Rubric

Debate Brief – Constructive Dialogues – Instructions and Scoring Rubric

Rebuttal & Closing Argument – Instructions and Scoring Rubric

Individual Contributions to group projects