Part of Lesson Plan: Bioethics: Fetal Tissue Transplantation

Activity Overview / Details

For the seminar (which is held on day 2), ask the students to form small groups and discuss potential questions that would be good starting points for our dialogue the next day. Remind students that the norms are in place and should be adhered to. If there is a group that has difficulty following norms, ask that one person in each group steps up to become the moderator in the group (for this part only). Their ticket out of class is to submit a list of questions they have collaborated on. There is a handout for questions in the "Strategies for Student Success" handout attached above (page 166).

Stress that you are looking for only opening questions for right now, but mention that in a Socratic Seminar, questions are divided into three groups:

Opening questions should have no single correct answer and leads back to the text for justification or clarification.

Core questions are content specific and are often "how" or "why" questions.

Closing questions establish relevance and connect to the real world or the experience of the participants.