Class 10 · Unit 1: The project cycle, and ethical frameworks · Lesson 1.3 · 40 min
Types of ethical frameworks
Spray 40 orchards out of 100. "Save the most apples" — or "save the most families"?
Today you will: Run one decision through 3 frameworks · Tell rights, utility and virtue apart · Spot the goal hidden inside a model
Story
A late frost has brought scab to the orchards above the village. The horticulture office has fungicide spray for forty orchards. There are a hundred.
The office has a new computer model to help decide. Bilal's uncle, who has a small orchard, reads out the result from his phone. "It says to spray the twenty big orchards first, then twenty small ones."
Hiba: “Why the big ones?”
Uncle: “It says that saves the most apples.”
Hiba: “Most apples, or most families?”
Her uncle looks at the phone for a long time. "It doesn't say."
Watch
Three ways to weigh a decision — — scan code 10.1.3 in the printed book.
Warm up your fingers
Skill: numbers in a formula (5 min)
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On typing.com: the symbols lessons.
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Type three times, eyes on the screen:
=0.8*(20*10 + 20*2) -
Goal this term: 38–44 WPM at 95%.
On the laptop
You need: LibreOffice Calc · three-frameworks.ods
The situation. 100 orchards: 20 large with 10 tonnes at risk each, 80 small with 2 tonnes each. Small-orchard families live on their orchard. Spray for 40 orchards saves 80% of what is at risk.
Mission 1: Three options (10 min, in pairs)
- ☐1
Sheet Orchards lists them. A: all 20 large, then 20 small. B: 40 small. C: a lottery — on average 8 large and 32 small.
- ☐2
Predict: rank A, B and C by tonnes of apples saved. Write it in H1.
- ☐3
For each option, write formulas for tonnes saved and small families protected. For A, tonnes saved is
=0.8*(20*10 + 20*2).
Mission 2: Three frameworks, three answers (10 min, in pairs)
- ☐4
Sheet Frameworks. For A, B and C, answer each row Yes, No or Depends, with a short reason:
- Utility (apples): saves the most apples?
- Utility (livelihoods): protects the most families who live on their orchard?
- Rights: every owner treated fairly and equally?
- Virtue: could the office explain it, face to face, to every family?
- ☐5
Choose one option. Write which framework decided it for you.
Mission 3: The hidden goal (3 min)
- ☐6
The model chose A. In A20, write what it was told to maximise — and who should have chosen that goal.
Finished early?
Invent an option D that beats A on families and beats B on apples.
No laptop today?
Work out the tonnes for A, B and C together on the board. Then four corners of the room, one per framework row: three minutes to agree, one minute to argue it to everyone.
Now you know
- Two types. Sector-based frameworks are written for one sector — bioethics for healthcare. Value-based frameworks work anywhere: rights, utility, virtue.
- They can disagree. Apples say A. Livelihoods say B. Rights may say C. A framework doesn't think for you; it makes sure your thinking covers what matters.
- Utility of what? A utility answer means nothing until you say what "good" is measured in — apples, or families.
- Every model optimises something. "Save the most apples" is a utility framework hidden inside the model. Choosing the goal is an ethical decision, and people should make it openly.
Debate it
The horticulture office publishes one line: "Orchards were chosen by a computer model."
- Which framework does that sentence fail, and why?
- Rewrite the sentence so that a small-orchard family could understand the choice and argue with it.
Check yourself — practice, not a test
1. Bioethics is an example of which type of ethical framework?
- ○ Value-based
- ○ Sector-based
- ○ Utility-based
- ○ Virtue-based
2. Match each question to its framework:
Does anyone lose a right or get treated unequally? · Which choice gives the greatest good for the most people? · Are the people deciding honest and compassionate?
Match with: Virtue-based · Utility-based · Rights-based3. Which are the three kinds of value-based framework in CBSE's classification? (choose all that apply)
- ○ Rights-based
- ○ Utility-based
- ○ Virtue-based
- ○ Sector-based
4. Two ethical frameworks applied honestly to the same problem always give the same answer.
- ○ True
- ○ False
5. A model told to "save the most apples" has a ______-based framework built into its goal.
Remember
Every model optimises something. Choosing what is an ethical decision.