I’ve said for years that if ESPN is willing to air spelling bees and poker tournaments, surely there’s an audience for ethics bowl. Well, the good folks at UNC’s Parr Center have taken it upon themselves to livestream the NHSEB! So let’s put that theory to the test.
If you’re online this weekend, check out the “Spectator Portal” links here and let us know what you think. In the future, I’m envisioning Joe Rogan and maybe Andrew Yang providing live commentary. But for now, chat discussion, when available, will have to suffice. Enjoy! And here’s to hoping IEB, Ethics Olympiad and other formats offer something similar soon.
Imagine a Zoom room filled with bobbing heads, shaking shoulders and “roof raising” hands.
Imagine “DJ DeLay” hyping the crowd, passing the mic from ethics bowl coaches to judges to team captains and back.
Imagine fresh 80s tunes pumpin’ in the background.
And imagine U-M Philosophy Outreach Coordinator Adam Anderson Waggoner stealing the show with a custom Michigan High School Ethics Bowl kickoff rap.
Hey Jeanine, Hey Jeanine, U of M Philosophy loves the ethics bowl scene! It gives us inspiration for our academic dreams.
The questions, the insights, analysis of cases – your work is the reason for the smiles on our faces.
Everyone is showing that the ethics keeps them flowing. No matter where you go, you know we will keep it goin’.
And I want to thank all the dedicated coaches, for all your hours spent, and for all your new approaches. The way you make a difference is amazing – please know this.
So now I’ll pass the mic right back to Jeanine, so we can hear some words from these excellent teams.
What an awesome way to begin a weekend of ethics bowling! As DJ DeLay put it, an event “dedicated to everyone around the world working for health and education, dignity and justice… and philosophy for all.”
All I have to say is…. Aint no party like a Michigan HSEB party cause a Michigan HSEB party don’t stop! Keep doin’ yo think, A2Ethics and DJ DeLay 😉
Virtual bowling was definitely different. On the plus side, we didn’t have to get up as early, got home sooner, and could dress casually from the waist down. On the downside, technology! Awesome when it works. Maddening when it doesn’t.
However, we persevered. Despite bandwidth issues, system crashes, barking dogs and FedEx deliveries, rounds proceeded per usual. Tough issues were thoughtfully discussed. Minds were expanded. Civility was modeled. And ultimately, regional champions were crowned.
Was the NHSEBOne format perfect? No. But having used it to both judge (Texas and New York / New Jersey HSEBs) and coach (Tennessee HSEB) over past week, it was pretty darn good. The only constructive suggestion I can think of – add phone numbers to the Zoom rooms so participants can call in when all else fails. Because sometimes, all else fails.
Overall, I liked it, as well as the similar Zoom-based platform used by the Michigan HSEB. So much so that regardless of whether and when Covid subsides, I encourage regional bowl organizers to retain the opportunity for judges, teams and even moderators to participate remotely. There’s no way I would have flown to Long Island or Tyler (Texas) or Ann Arbor to judge those events. Yet it was awesome to connect with ethically-minded leaders in those communities. We all know there are thoughtful folks out there somewhere considering the same issues, thinking through the same discussion questions, enjoying the same “anti-debate” format. But prior to the pandemic, apart from the regional champs at UNC, we rarely interacted.
Being able to collaborate and share talents across time zones has the potential to synergize the bowling community’s impact in ways disjointed bowling never could. So here’s my vote to find ways to keep it up, pandemic or not, temporary system crashes or not.
What were your own experiences remote bowling? What went well? What are your ideas for making the next event even better?
If you’ve been meaning to submit a write-up for Ethics Bowl to the Rescue! but just haven’t gotten around to it, don’t miss your chance!
Pour a hot cup of Joe, put that pesky smartphone on airplane mode, and shoot me your thoughts on why ethics bowl rocks, your hopes (and fears) for its future, and anything you’re inclined to share.
Leave the fancy writing to me — literary perfection is neither required nor expected. I’ll simply be pulling key quotes and weaving them into the book’s narrative. So you don’t even have to worry about writing a coherent essay — just answer the prompt. Submissions welcome from organizers, coaches, judges, moderators, competitors and simply fans.
Ethics Bowl to the Rescue! Interview Questions – please submit to matt (at) mattdeaton.com by Oct 31 (shortly thereafter is also OK if you mail me Reese’s Cups):
1) Why were you initially attracted to ethics bowl and why do you continue to support it?
2) What do you see as ethics bowl’s primary benefits?
3) What’s your vision for ethics bowl’s future?
4) Anything extra you’d like to add?
5) What’s your role and how long have you been involved?
If you’re an organizer scrambling to pull together virtual bowl training materials, take a deep breath, strike your favorite yoga pose, and click here. Michigan HSEB organizer Jeanine DeLay and her team at A2Ethics offer a relaxing, reassuring judge training video sure to chillax volunteers and participants worldwide.
One of the things we love about A2Ethics – their style! Here’s Jeanine encouraging judge trainees to stand and stretch.
If you’re an organizer, Jeannine can empathize with the worries that keep you up at night, likening bowl coordination to “mosquito control at a nudist camp.” Luckily we learn from one another’s mistakes and build on one another’s successes. Past problems have inspired redundant point-tallying officials, recruiting, courting and training more volunteers than needed, and in Michigan this year implementation of a new alternate judging system.
While only three judges’ score sheets will be counted, four judges will log into Zoom to view and score each match. Why? If one of the official judges’ computers decides bowl time is the perfect time for a forced reboot, the alternate judge will be promoted, their scores included in the totals. Tada! Simple, seamless, effective.
One note: the scoring interface featured in the video is unique to the Michigan Bowl. I’ve tested it and it works great – suspect creator Wayne Eaker of Zengenuity, Inc would be willing to discuss how to do something similar at your bowl if interested. Thanks for your devotion and leadership, Jeanine and team! The best of luck with your upcoming V-Bowl.
That familiar match format, even if via an unfamiliar platform
Have your own virtual bowl disaster avoidance ideas? New virtual bowling materials others might benefit from? Share in a comment or shoot me an email and we’ll get the word out in an article – collaboration and cooperation are what ethics bowl is all about.
Our friends at the Parr Center have been busy, recently launching the brand new all-online NHSEBAcademy. The best part? Live, Zoom-based bowling clinics. The first two are scheduled for later this week (register here). Depending on how interactive they are, this could be a game-changer. But wait, there’s more!
I believe that’s our friend Kyle Robertson at UC Santa Cruz featured on the organizer kit image. Looking good, Kyle!
The Library contains zip files packed with material tailored for teams, coaches, judges and organizers. You can download the current NHSEB rules and guidelines, case pool, score sheet and rubric (coaches and teams – don’t overlook those scoring criteria!), and even moderator scripts. Resources planned for future release include a guide to coaching a bowl during COVID (tip: buy a webcam), a manual for organizers interested in growing their bowl (I have an older version from my time as the original NHSEB Director of Outreach – email if you can’t wait for the new one), and “Ethics Bowl in Class: Resources for the Classroom and Beyond.”
The Theater includes an “Ethical Reasoning Toolkit” playlist beginning with a vid by Yale’s Kelley Schiffman. Prof Schiffman deftly distinguishes between descriptive and normative claims, and is followed by an exploration of the nature and moral implications of consent. While the consent vid uses the language of rights far too much (rights claims are too clunky for quality ethics bowl work), it’s redeemed by a cookie-eating illustration. Cookies cure all, and since we’re bashing rights claims, I hereby proclaim a universal human right to Toll House chocolate chip lovers cookies.
The second playlist, “Arguing About Morality,” begins with a vid similar to the descriptive vs. normative distinction from the first list, only this time delivered by John Corvino and focusing on facts vs. opinions. Corvino next overviews how arguments by analogy work, and how to analyze them. Arguments by analogy are common and persuasive – a team’s entire bowling strategy could be built on them (a possible strategy for my own team…).
The library and theater are certain to benefit teams, coaches, judges and volunteers. But the most welcome, innovative and value-adding feature is NHSEBAcademy Live.
NHSEBAcademy Live is a new series of specially-designed online events for NHSEB students, coaches, organizers, and volunteers. These programs will provide new ways to engage with Ethics Bowl content, mechanics, and skills. Our full schedule of events is below, and more will be added throughout the Fall and Winter in the lead up to NHSEB Regional Season.
NHSEBAcademy.org/live
First up is a new ethics bowl clinic scheduled for Thursday, Oct 22nd from 3-4:30 EST and Saturday, Oct 24th from 4:30-6 EST (the second will be a repeat of the first). The workshops promise to cover “presentation techniques, responsive commentaries, practice Q+A sessions, and more.” Registration is required and will enable access to the Zoom link. If you check it out, let us know how it went. We may digitally bump into one another at the Saturday session.
Thanks, UNC, for this innovation. Looking forward to all the Academy has to offer. Readers can check it out via the menu at NHSEB.unc.edu or by clicking here.
A brand new NHSEB case pool was released today, and the topics are promising. There are cases on mask wearing, police de-funding, TikTok, and my favorite — Tiger King!
We’ll begin sharing initial analyses soon. But guest posts are often the best posts, so if you or your team would like to claim one of the cases (not Tiger King – I got dibs), shoot me an email (matt (at) mattdeaton.com) and we’ll get your thoughts posted soon.
Check out the cases via nhseb.unc.edu -> Cases or directly here. And happy analyzing, you cool cats and kittens!
Huge thanks to the organizers, judges, coaches and competitors who’ve already agreed to submit or who’ve submitted write-ups for Ethics Bowl to the Rescue! From founders Bob and Joanne in California, to organizers Richard and Rachel in Utah, Fred in Baltimore, Leo in Shanghai, Jeanine in Michigan, Matthew in Perth, Greg in Texas, Matt in Ohio, Alex in Oregon, Roberta in New York, Alex in North Carolina and George in Florida, to judges Tim, Andrew and Dirk in Australia, as well as Ted, Rob and Claire in Portland, to coaches Michael in Washington and Lance in Tennessee, it’s great to have so much support this early. Thanks to all!
I’ve attempted to invite all National High School and Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl organizers (well, almost all — still a couple of names left on this very long list), so if you haven’t received an email, please check your spam folder and/or please contact me directly.
I’m asking organizers to nominate judges, coaches, moderators, participants and others they think might be able to contribute. However, ethics bowl organizers are notoriously busy people, especially with this COVID-corrupted semester underway, and most are understandably preoccupied with trying to figure out how to best host their bowl via Zoom. (I understand bowl leadership is ahead of the game on this, which is very good news – maybe everyone can relax?) So I hereby personally invite anyone sharing a love for ethics bowl, including you, to answer the following:
1) Why were you initially attracted to ethics bowl and why do you continue to support it?
2) What do you see as ethics bowl’s primary benefits?
3) What’s your vision for ethics bowl’s future?
4) Anything extra you’d like to add?
Nothing fancy or complete required. I’ll simply be pulling key quotes from submissions as I write the book. Please send your responses and any questions to matt (at) mattdeaton.com by October 31st.
Thanks in advance. The world needs to know why ethics bowl is such an impactful and awesome event perhaps now more than ever. It’s Ethics Bowl to the Rescue!, and there’s no reason we should keep that good news to ourselves. Cheers, Matt
Wouldn’t it be nice if the Ethics Bowl community had a concise, accessible, fun book to gift prospective coaches, competitors, judges and sponsors? A book that explained in plain, relaxed language why ethics bowl’s collaborative, mutually respectful approach is exactly what the world needs, possibly now more than ever? A book that weaved together stories and quotes from competitors, coaches, organizers, judges, moderators – quotes from you?
Wish no more! Introducing Ethics Bowl to the Rescue!, coming early 2021, with your help. With support and endorsement from ethics bowl creator Dr. Bob Ladenson, we cordially invite you, dear ethics bowl participant, organizer, volunteer or fan, to share why you love and continue to support ethics bowl. Nothing fancy required. The plan is to share the many benefits of ethics bowl into chapters on topics such as:
Civility
Friendship
Social Change
Self-Knowledge
Public Speaking
Critical Thinking
Moral Development
Personal Confidence
Philosophical Appreciation
Don’t worry that you’re not involved or advanced or impressive enough to contribute – it doesn’t matter if you’re a first-year Jr. High bowler or a tenth-year Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl organizer, the reigning National High School Ethics Bowl champs or the last-place team from our smallest Regional – there’s a place for your input in Ethics Bowl to the Rescue! and I’d love to include it.
I’d even love to include input from Australia’s Ethics Olympiad and Ethics Slam – ya’ll might get your own chapter 🙂
If you’re not sure what to say, a funny or heartwarming ethics bowl-related story would be fan-freaking-tastic. Or simply share from the heart what ethics bowl means to you.
The book will be affordably available (Amazon’s cut + printing costs) in paperback for those who still like to hold physical books, and also in open-source PDF (and Kindle, Apple, etc. if I can figure out the conversion…) for free that the community will be welcome and encouraged email, host, post and otherwise share as they see fit.
Submission Window: July 1st – October 31st, 2020
Email Submissions to: matt(at)mattdeaton.com (<- replace “(at)” with “@” – the parentheses are a crude spam deterrent). Or if you prefer, simply post in a comment here.
Again, don’t think of this is a complete essay, or an academic (stuffy) article, or even an ethics argument. But rather a relaxed telling that I’ll pull from and incorporate into a book that explains why more people should try ethics bowl.
Questions welcome. And feel free and encouraged to share this widely. Organizers, please tell your volunteers and coaches. Coaches, please tell your teams. Teams, get to writing 🙂
Thanks in advance, and looking forward to reading why you continue to love and support ethics bowl, just like me, Matt
This week our friends at the Parr Center announced a virtual ethics bowl celebration scheduled for mid-June – the 2020 Ethics Bowl Summit.
“[T]he NHSEB invites you to join in a review, recognition, and celebration of some of the extraordinary things our community has accomplished this year! The 2020 Ethics Bowl Summit is scheduled for 7pm (ET) on the evening of [Saturday] June 13, 2020 and will feature exciting updates and developments from NHSEB leadership, perspectives from students, coaches, and organizers across the U.S., and, of course, recognition of our regional winners, case competition winners, national finalist teams, and more!”
The event will be viewable via live stream on YouTube and on the NHSEB’s social medial platforms. Full information will be posted at NHSEBonline.org. So mark your calendar, and hope to see you there (online).
