- User Guide
- I Would’ve Let You Die Too Lesson Plan
- The Girl Who Died Twice Lesson Plan
- Need a New Liver? Drinkers to the Back of the Line Lesson Plan
- Why Can’t I Buy a Kidney? Lesson Plan
- A Womb of One’s Own? Lesson Plan
- Creating One Life to Save Another Lesson Plan
- An Off Switch for Depression? Lesson Plan
- Miracle Drugs, Million Dollar Price Tags Lesson Plan
- The Future of Babymaking
- The God Squad Lesson Plan
- Lesson Plan Advisory Board
playing god? in the classroom is an educational resource designed to accompany the playing god? podcast, for use by instructors to introduce bioethics concepts and facilitate discussions of ethics among high school and above students. The playing god? in the classroom resources are free and available for non-commercial uses. For other uses and more information, please contact [email protected].
This Lesson Plan accompanies Episode 7, Season 1 of playing god?
Click here to access this Lesson Plan in a printable pdf format
Summary
For years Brandy Ellis had tried everything to treat her depression, but nothing worked. Then, she heard about a new treatment, something called deep brain stimulation (DBS). This brain implant technology changed her life. But it also raises ethics questions. Because the technology has the potential to alter personalities and performance– where should society draw the line between treatment and enhancement? Are we giving such devices too much control over who we are by using them to alter fundamental human traits like our emotions?
Psychological conditions and brain disorders can affect our identity, changing who we are and how we make choices. This Lesson Plan will help students think about how we decide, and who gets to decide, when patients can and cannot make decisions about their health. Technologies that affect mood and personality also raise questions about when treatment crosses a line to become enhancement. Students will be asked to think about the definition of enhancement, identify examples, and take positions on their acceptability.
This Episode discusses suicide and severe depression. In Additional Resources, at the end of this Lesson Plan, we have listed national-level resources for individuals struggling with thoughts of suicide. Teachers may want to gather and provide additional local resources to students when discussing these issues.
Vocabulary
The following are key terms used in the Episode and their definitions. The terms are marked in bold when they appear elsewhere in the Lesson Plan.
Discussion Guide
The following Assessment Questions can be used by instructors to evaluate student comprehension of Brandy’s story and the bioethics concepts featured in the Podcast Episode. The Discussion Questions can prompt students to make claims and provide evidence and their reasoning. Student comprehension and views can be assessed before and after listening to the Episode and/or participating in the group activity.
Sample Activities
The activities allow students to actively engage with the bioethics questions at the center of the Episode. Students will develop critical thinking skills and reason-based judgment by citing evidence from the Podcast and other sources. In bioethics, there often isn’t a single “right” answer to a particular question; ideally, students will express and evaluate diverse viewpoints about complex, real-world problems.
Additional Resources
Further readings about key topics covered in the Episode.
Careers Mentioned
The following is a list of different careers and specific professionals mentioned in the Episode.
About this Lesson Plan
The playing god? in the classroom resources are free and open to use for non-commercial purposes. For other uses and more information, please contact [email protected].
To develop these materials, the Berman Institute has collaborated with a group of teachers participating in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship Program, which provides accomplished K-12 STEM educators the opportunity to spend 11 months working in federal agencies or in U.S. Congressional offices, applying their extensive knowledge and classroom experiences to national education program and/or education policy efforts. Eight of the Fellows, drawn from public and private schools across the country, formed an advisory board that is helping shape, review, and pilot the educational materials.
The playing god? Podcast is a production of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics Dracopoulos-Bloomberg iDeas Lab. Season One was co-produced with Pushkin Industries with support from the Greenwall Foundation.
© 2024 Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics
The Podcast Episode and this lesson plan are not designed to answer patient-specific clinical, professional, legal, or ethical questions. Information contained herein is not intended as a substitute for professional consultation.