Ethics in Action Design Challenge
How can we inspire the next generation to put the Golden Rule into practice? APPE is seeking volunteers—including educators, parents, grandparents, and community leaders—to guide youth in creative problem-solving for this year’s pilot Ethics in Action Design Challenge.
Whether through drawing, painting, digital art, software design, or interactive media, student projects (individual or team) will explore fairness, empathy, and social justice, illustrating the Golden Rule’s timeless principle: "Treat others as you wish to be treated."
Conceived by ethics researcher and social justice advocate Raquel Diaz-Sprague (APPE Board Member, 2022–2026), this initiative builds on the successful Ethics in Action: Art or App Design Challenge co-directed with mathematics and computer science professor Alan Sprague at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (2019–2021).
Selected student projects will be highlighted at the upcoming APPE Conference in Pittsburgh (March 4–7, 2027) as a proof-of-concept for a broader call for participation during the 2027–2028 academic year.
Get Involved
If you are a college faculty member, school teacher, parent, grandparent, visual artist, community leader or an APPE member interested in guiding a young person or student team through a design project in any medium, we invite you to participate! If you would like to volunteer for this project we welcome you. Please email DesignChallenge@appe-ethics.org for information on how to get involved.
Background Information:
- Countering Hate Speech through Prosocial Student Projects
- Promoting prosocial software design for student projects
- Embedding Moral Reasoning and Teamwork Training in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering
- Towards an ethics in action: Art or App Design Challenge as a tool in STEM ethics education | IEEE Conference Publication | IEEE Xplore