The two-and-a-half-day meeting combined plenary sessions with smaller working group discussions to facilitate the exchange of information and the development of ideas to support increased implementation of education on dual use issues. The agenda and participants list for the workshop may be found in Appendix B.

The workshop sought to take advantage of the substantial amount of work that had already been done to prepare the ground for implementing significant new educational efforts. Workshop participants included practicing life scientists, bioethics and biosecurity practitioners, and experts in the design of educational programs, reflecting two basic themes for the workshop: ” To engage the life sciences community, the particular security issues related to dual use research would best be approached in the context of responsible conduct of research, the wider array of issues that the community addresses in its efforts to fulfill its responsibilities to society. “

Education about dual use issues would benefit from the insights of the “science of learning,” the growing body of research about how individuals learn at various stages of their lives and careers and the most effective methods for teaching them, which provides the foundation for efforts in many parts of the world to improve the teaching of science and technology at all levels of instruction. This chapter and Chapter 2 explain and develop these two themes in more detail, with Chapter 2 providing a primer on the results of research about learning and effective approaches to teaching. They are followed by two chapters devoted to the specific issues addressed during the workshop and the committee’s findings, conclusions, and recommendations about them. There are a number of audiences, including decision-makers at the national and international level and the community of experts about dual use issues and biosecurity in many sectors. One important audience is those carrying out education in the life sciences in colleges and universities, with an emphasis on graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.

The findings and recommendations are also relevant for those charged with the education of technical and professional staff in settings such as research institutes or other laboratories, although they do not receive as much attention in the report. The report does not address education about dual use issues for students at the secondary level, although the resources and methods discussed may be relevant and the increasing availability of equipment and techniques to ever younger students suggests that this is an audience to be considered in future efforts. Learning things is not limited to the scentific area. Instead it also has relations with some other things like speaking a language or using software, including Rosetta Stone English and Rosetta Stone French. If you have a creative mind, you will make all your own differences in the end!