In recognition of the growing need for ethics instruction in computing, many instructors incorporate ethics into their computing courses. However, such integration poses an important question: does incorporating ethics into computing topics enhance or distract from students’ understanding of core technical content? To answer this question, I designed a controlled lab study, assessing technical content knowledge and ethical issue-spotting abilities among students exposed to ethics-integrated compared to technical-only instruction. 85 student participants were randomly assigned to receive instruction on K-Means Clustering in one of two groups: the treatment group learned the topic through an ethical narrative, and the control group learned the topic using only abstract, numeric examples. Comparing pre- and post-test learning gains between the groups can offer insights into the impact of ethics instruction on student learning outcomes. This study can help educators find the best ways to teach ethics while recognizing that computing instructors also need provide thorough instruction on their core computing subject. Ultimately, these findings can help ensure our efforts to teach ethics within computing effectively support students’ learning of both ethics and technical computing topics.