Pisces Game Reflective Essay Writing your essay while your experiences are fresh in your mind, but after thoroughly reading this guide.

Context: Sustainability has been identified as one of the global grand challenges of the 21st century. In order for future generations to enjoy a satisfactory quality of life, the current generation must find ways to meet humanity’s needs for energy, shelter, food and water in ways that are environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable.

Participating in the Pisces Game has allowed you to confront first-hand the ethical problems associated with the Tragedy of the Commons as explained in the recent blog posts. Hopefully your personal experience has helped you identify the moral implications involved when facing such issues and develop your own opinions regarding how to deal with common pool resources.

Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to encourage deep personal reflection regarding the experience of the Pisces Game as it relates to CEE 300, engineering ethics, and sustainability.

Research/Sources: 1. Pisces Game experience, and instructional materials at actionethics.com 2. Online lectures on Tragedy of Commons

Audience: You can assume the reader has a general understanding of the Pisces game. You should also operate with the assumption that any member of the instructional team is your audience–thus please remember that your paper must reflect the concepts that we have been discussing in this class.

Assignment: Your assignment is to write a personal reflective essay regarding your Pisces Game experience. This essay is an opportunity for you to reflect on the Pisces Game as it relates to several important questions that you will have to answer for yourself during your education and throughout your career as an engineer. You do not need to explain the mechanics of the Pisces game in your essay, unless it is relevant to a point you are trying to make. You can assume the reader has a general understanding of the Pisces game. When writing your essays, please consider ALL of the following factors:

Morals Here are some elements to consider in addressing the engineering ethics implications of the Pisces Game. • What obligations do you have to other students? How is this influenced (or not) by their own actions and circumstances? • What personal sacrifices are you willing to make to meet those obligations and why? Did your actions in the Pisces Game reflect your personal convictions regarding such obligations, or were they motivated by other factors? • Would things change outside of a game setting and why?

Ethical Expectations Thinking back to your original expectations regarding the Pisces game, consider the following questions. • What were the roles of expectations and communication in the Pisces Game? • When did you face difficult moral decisions, and how did you address them?

Fairness The setup of the game is admittedly and purposefully unfair, but YOUR reaction was up to you. This question is NOT about the fairness of the game itself, but rather about your interaction with it. • Were your actions intended to bring about a fair outcome from an unfair situation, or were they mainly out of self-interest? Did you accomplish your intended goals? Why or why not? • What, if anything, would you change about how you played?

Engineering Canons and Sustainability You should be familiar with the various ethics principles related to the fundamental canons of engineering. You may also have some familiarity with sustainability principles. If not, this is an excellent opportunity to find out more about them. • Relate the Pisces Game to the canons of engineering ethics and principles of sustainability • How do the lessons from the Pisces Game match expectations for engineers? Describe how your actions reflected these expectations or differed from them. • Explain how you reacted to any moral issues in the Pisces Game which the canons did not provide the “right” answer for, or explain how you drew upon these canons for guidance in confronting moral issues not explicitly addressed by them.

Advice for Future Students At the end of your essay, you will have an opportunity to include advice intended for future players of the Pisces Game. Imagine yourself before playing the Pisces Game – what advice would you provide? • What recommendations or warnings would have helped you the most? • How can you help future players succeed? Is success important? • What did you learn about yourself? Does that match the advice you’re giving?

Although you are not required to answer each question listed here, address the topics listed, including: “Morals,” “Ethical Expectations,” “Fairness,” “Engineering Canons and Sustainability,” and “Advice.” Style: When drafting your reflective essays, use the first person (“I think…,”) and discuss the emotions that accompanied your experience (“I felt…”). You should discuss other students in parts of your essay, but only as they relate to your personal experience in the Pisces Game.

Grading: Your reflective essay will be worth up to 150 XPpoints.

High quality reflective essays will display the following qualities: • Demonstrates understanding of ethics concepts relevant to the Pisces Game. You should refer to ethics concepts explained in blog posts, class discussions and videos or readings to support your essay. • Shows evidence that the writer is attuned to his or her own action and the ways in which others affect his or her behavior. • Your essay should convey to the reader that you understand the complexity of the issues involved and can speak with authority regarding them, without alienating the reader (e.g., incorporating references, using correct terminology, and writing with confidence). • Provides personal insights into salient ethical issues raised by the Pisces Game. A great deal of personal reflection is required for this essay, and the product of such reflection should be evident in your essay. • Communicates clearly and effectively in a concise, but thorough manner.