Resources for Teachers

This resource guide has been developed to help teachers at all grade levels incorporate the topic of bioethics into existing Alberta Learning curricula and plan Bioethics Week activities within their classes. To begin, we suggest looking over the introductory section “What is Bioethics Week?” to get a brief overview of bioethics, the goals of Bioethics Week and those involved, and why we believe it is important for your class or school to be involved.

After reading this introductory component of the guide, you may wish to review the section on Alberta Learning curricula for ideas about where and how to incorporate Bioethics Week into your goals and plans for your students’ learning. You may then look at the Activity Ideas page to view a list of suggested topics, discussion questions and activities, and choose ones that are age-appropriate and relevant for your class.

The list of suggested activities is meant to provoke thoughtful and reflective discussion for students at all grade levels, stages of maturity and academic ability. Given that you best know your class, we have left the categorization of activities very broad in order to give you the choice of which topics, discussion questions and activities are best suited to your students. The suggestions are by no means an exhaustive collection, thus we encourage you to be creative in your incorporation of bioethics into your classroom activities. The ultimate goal is to get students thinking and talking about ethics, bioethical issues, and how it all relates to their own lives.

For additional assistance or resources, please consult the Bioethics Week section of our website here, or contact the Provincial Health Ethics Network (PHEN) or any of our partner organizations. We will be pleased to offer any advice or provide as much support as we can.

With your permission, we would like to include your activity on a list of Bioethics Week activities taking place throughout the province. If you email or phone us with information on your activity, we will post it on the PHEN website.

You may phone us at 1-800-472-4066 or 780-447-1180, or email us at mailto:info@phen.ab.ca