The nano conscience

THE NANO-CON PROJECT IS A ROLE-PLAY, designed to encourage the discussion of moral issues in PSE and citizenship at Key Stage 3 and above, though it could be adapted for use at Key Stage Two. Students are invited to consider two contrasting ways of making moral judgements and then apply them to real-life situations. The role-play uses the idea of a small computer acting as a conscience, so some discussion of what we mean by conscience would be advisable soon after the start of the project.

One of the tasks, ‘programming’ the details of each moral system, should provide students with plenty of scope for discussion. The important thing is to insist that they debate their choices fully and give reasons before coming to a final decision. This requirement is written into the documents that follow so, hopefully, some of the pressure to insist on reasons is taken off the teacher. This is one of the advantages of simulations.

Students may need to be given examples of moral situations with which to test their programs. Teachers should consider this and write a couple of examples to start the students off. Creating these will also help teachers get a feel for the issues involved in the simulation. An alternative is for teachers and students to create a few examples together in order to get things going. The process of working through the examples may show that it is extremely difficult to expect any moral system to provide us with clear guidance about how best to act. This is emphasised in a couple of letters included in the documents that follow and should proved an opportunity for further discussion.

Simulations work best when the teacher presents the initial scenario with a sense of excitement and enthusiasm. Students are often surprisingly willing to work on an obvious fiction if they find it intriguing. In this simulation, the first two documents can be given out at the start. The document called Testing the Programs can be supplied when the teams wish to test their designs. The last document, Two points of view, should be provided after the student’s testing has been completed.