Category: Annoucements

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Ethics Bowl to the Rescue! (made possible by YOU)

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

You can’t say no to SuperSocrates…
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2020 (Virtual) Ethics Bowl Summit Invite

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).

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Write a COVID Case for the Michigan Bowl?

Organizers of the Michigan High School Ethics Bowl invite you to write a COVID-themed case for the 2020-2021 season.

Art by Raphael. Captions by A2Ethics.

From an email distributed by A2Ethics late May, “There are so many ethical dilemmas we are witnessing and going through… [W]e urge you to include the moral dimensions of what is happening. Or not happening… to broaden and embolden your diary and journal-keeping by: Writing an ethics case study for the 2021 Michigan High School Ethics Bowl. Now is a perfect time to practice risky thinking–during a time of extreme risk. What political philosopher Hannah Arendt calls ‘thinking without a banister.’” 
 
If you’d like to submit a COVID-themed case for consideration, visit https://www.a2ethics.org/write-contributing-ethics-bowl-case-study 

And don’t be shy! Maybe you’ve never written a case before. Maybe your case won’t be selected. But simply giving it a shot will make you a better writer, a better bowler, and probably a braver, more action-oriented person. Somebody’s case has to be chosen. Why not yours?

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Introducing NHSEB Online

Last week National High School Ethics Bowl Director Alex Richardson shared the following with regional organizers. Reprinted here in full (with complementary video) Alex outlines the move of NHSEB online, includes links to several engaging resources, and (unless I’m misreading – have messaged Alex to confirm) expands inclusion beyond winners of the regional bowls to all NHSEB participants(!).  May 8th UPDATE: Alex confirmed — the new online resources are open to all NHSEB Regional participants! Kudos to UNC for making these changes to sustain (and grow!) ethics bowl during this challenging age of COVID.

I hope you are all staying safe and healthy during what is shaping up to be a challenging time for us all.  

My team at the Parr Center and I have been working hard in the past few weeks to bring parts of the NHSEB experience online in the wake of the cancellation of our National Competition due to COVID-19. Today, I’m thrilled to introduce you to NHSEBOnline, a new slate of programming to engage our students virtually and keep up the conversations that make our activity what it is.  

The program will include three central initiatives: (1) asynchronous online Discussion Threads which allow students to engage each other in conversation about an abridged Case Set via video, audio, and text-based messaging, (2) weekly Group “Huddles” where students can discuss problems and prospects with NHSEB staff and volunteer organizers via videoconference, and finally (3) a virtual Ethics Bowl Summit in late May which will bring together students, organizers, volunteers, and parents from across the country to recognize and feature our National Finalists, celebrate with all of our students, and close out the 2019-2020 season! More information about format and scheduling for the Summit will be released in the coming weeks.   I hope you’ll share this message and the video above with your coaches and students. Registration for participants is now open. We are also continually looking for volunteer organizers to help out with the administration of the program and planning for the end of the year. Your help is most welcome! Conversation is the essence of this activity, and I’m so excited to see it continue, particularly during the complex and challenging times we find ourselves in.

I hope you’ll join us in this experiment, and encourage your students and coaches to do the same.

Alex Richardson,  Director, National High School Ethics Bowl, Parr Center for Ethics, UNC Chapel Hill

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Guest Analyze?

Are you studying the IEB or NHSEB case pool? Have a take you’re willing to share?

Send it (written or video – your choice) to matt (at) mattdeaton.com and we’ll gladly share it.

Nothing especially fancy required – the point is simply to give teams something to chew on – a little outside input to inform their analysis and bowl prep.

Don’t be shy. You’ll be glad you did it, and so will your fellow ethics bowl enthusiasts.

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2019-2020 NHSEB Regionals Case Pool Released

The 2019-2020 National High School Ethics Bowl regionals case pool has been out for a couple of weeks now. If you’ve not downloaded your copy, get it at NHSEB.unc.edu here.

If you’re new, consider the tips here, and also check out the “How to Be an Ethics Bowl Coach” guide and other resources here. (Even if you’re a competitor rather than a coach, that stuff should prove helpful.)

If you need a primer on philosophical ethics, the open source ethics bowl version of Ethics in a Nutshell is here, and there are additional excellent resources on the NHSEB’s site here.

Happy ethics bowling, and stay tuned for analysis of select cases – requests welcome, as always.

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Be A Case Writer?

Ever read an ethics bowl case and think, “I could do better than this…”?

Or pondered in the moments before falling asleep, “I love ethics bowl, but competing, coaching, moderating, judging and organizing just aren’t my bag…”?

Well, maybe you’d enjoy and be good at writing and editing ethics bowl cases.

An example from the 2013-2014 NHSEB case committee — providing feedback on one another’s drafts

If that sounds appealing, reach out to Robert Boyd Skipper at rskipper (at) stmarytx.edu. Per Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl Chair Richard Greene, Robert is currently considering new volunteers for the IEB case writing team.

Current IEB coaches and competitors would of course have a disqualifying conflict of interest. But all others, reach out to Robert for more information.

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Version 2.0…

Welcome to EthicsBowl.org, version 2.0.

A hacker,  a bot, or some combination thereof infected critical files in February, 2018. (Way to go, hacker bots…) Hence, why the site was unavailable March and most of April, why some old articles are gone, and why the site is slightly redesigned.

The purpose remains the same — assist ethics bowl coaches who need and want the help, though I’ve decided to expand the target audience from high school ethics bowl coaches to ethics bowl coaches on any level. The more, the merrier, and maybe the various groups can benefit from one another’s expertise and company.  So expect analysis of IEB cases next season, of course along with NHSEB cases per the original version.

With the site’s aims in mind, should you have ideas on how to do it better, don’t be shy. Supporting ethics bowl is how I get my extra curricular philosophical kicks, and my primary outlet for bettering the world. So ideas welcome and appreciated. And if you’re inclined to submit a guest article, pitch away – it’s very likely I’d welcome the opportunity.

Thanks for visiting, and welcome to EthicsBowl.org, version 2.0.