2024-2025 NHSEB Regional Case 9 Parents Out of Bounds Study Guide
Here’s another superb NHSEB case study guide from our friend Coach Michael Andersen, followed by a lecture video by Yours Truly on a related philosophical article that I use in my Ethics Intro classes.
Together, your team should be in a great position to rock this one. Enjoy!
2023-2024 NHSEB Regional Cases 12 Sartorial Shuffle, 15 Miners, Not Minors, and 16 Is Whatney Worth It? Study Guides
Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day! We’re enjoying it with a little snow here in East Tennessee – have sleds tied to the back of the family 4-wheeler ready to go. Hoping you’re staying cozy wherever you find yourself.
Coming into the home stretch of NHSEB regionals, here are three additional study guides from Coach Michael. His team will be participating in the Oregon HSEB February 3rd and 4th at Portland State.
Special kudos to Michael and team for being willing to share these with the full Ethics Bowl community, including teams they’ll go up against in a few weeks. Now that’s the spirit of Ethics Bowl!
CheatBot or SuperTutor? ChatGPT for Ethics Bowl Zoom Debrief
This past Sunday, a small group of Ethics Bowl organizers, coaches and enthusiasts met for an informal, unofficial discussion on how ChatGPT and other generative AI tools might be used for Ethics Bowl. The purpose wasn’t to settle much of anything, but to inspire further discussion at the upcoming NHSEB regionals and nationals, as well as IEB nationals.
Why? Teams are surely using it. And given that Ethics Bowl participants, coaches, judges, moderators, organizers, their families and fans are among the most thoughtful people in the world, inviting them into a collective discussion on how to properly incorporate this technology seems a no-brainer. It’s an ethics question about Ethics Bowl – doesn’t get much more relevant than that. If you agree, please share this article and/or the accompanying recording, and report back any and all ideas worth sharing. Some upshots:
- How to Best Leverage AI for Ethics Bowl Prep: Think of it as a conversation partner, tutor, rough draft-generator and/or judge/opposing team simulator. Understand its limitations. Fact check. Reason check. Moral blind spot check. Bias check. It’s a strong supplement to, but not a replacement for, human wisdom and deliberation. And it performs best when guided with insightful follow-ups.
- On Worries that a Team Might Use AI to Write a Presentation Script: Using ChatGPT for Ethics Bowl prep isn’t analogous to asking it to do your homework because a) teams need to come to a consensus prior to the event (and it’s unlikely an entire team would agree to memorize and regurgitate a chatbot’s script), and b) due to EB’s live, interactive nature, any team overly reliant on an AI script would be embarrassingly exposed during commentary response and judge Q&A. Also, bowlers are a special self-selected subgroup of the population, far less likely to do anything that might constitute cheating than your average student (most of whom are also unlikely to cheat, but we educators are often paranoid about that).
- Steps Ethics Bowl Leaders Can Take: While a team might get away with memorizing an eloquent opening presentation script written for them by a chatbot (the risk is low, but one could), this can be partially mitigated by adjusting score sheets to increase the relative weighting of the commentary, commentary response and judge Q&A portions. (Rules committees, steering committees, other leaders – please give this additional thought – tweaking rubrics might help as well.)
- Steps Ethics Bowl Coaches Can Take: The broader community of Ethics Bowl coaches (including Ethics Olympiad, John Stuart Mill Cup, etc. coaches) can and should work together to test, share and recommend AI prompts and techniques that produce the highest quality outputs. They should also remind students of the virtues of democratic deliberation and the risks of intellectual laziness. Consider EthicsBowl.org one place to share such insights.
- Steps Case Committees Can Take: Since generative AI seems more effective at scripting responses on cases about real world events (with published editorials for the AI to scan), case writing committees should consider using more fictitious scenarios or putting twists on real world cases (focusing on some interpersonal moral tension within the broader context of a real world issue). This may be unnecessary, but definitely deserves additional thought.
There was more – please watch the video when you have time. But one thing I argued is that AI can serve as an equalizer, connecting all teams (both advantaged and disadvantaged) with an on-demand tutor with an unmatched knowledge base and inexhaustible stamina. Students with the time and interest can learn pretty much anything, including philosophical ethics, so long as they know how to ask good questions. Background knowledge definitely helps, and learning will be slower when the topic is new. But I’m very optimistic about AI’s potential for education.
Special thanks to Michael Andersen for the idea, the planning and co-hosting, as well as to coaches Dick Lesicko, Angela Vahsholtz-Andersen and Chris Ng (thanks also, Chris, for your notes which helped with this article), organizers Jeanine DeLay and Greg Bock for your preparation, attendance and engagement. And apologies to Gabe Kahn, who gets credit for trying to attend! Next time I’ll more closely monitor the Zoom host notifications…
2023-2024 NHSEB Regional Case 6: Well That’s Debatable Study Guide
Another stellar case analysis study guide from Coach Michael Andersen in Washington.
Matt’s super quick, unsolicited take on the open-closed question distinction offered in the case: no question is “closed” for the true philosopher. We might quickly dismiss certain claims and arguments with good reason. But any idea sincerely expressed deserves consideration. Though my open-mindedness is tested when a friend sends me flat earth videos…
Anyway, the guide is fantastic per usual – thank you, Michael! The link to SchoolofThought.org‘s “Rules of Civil Conversation” alone make it worth every team’s review. In fact, let’s highlight those rather nice rules below… Why isn’t Ethics Bowl partnering with these hilariously (“let’s avoid the apocalypse”? – ha!) good folks? I’m an instant fan.
Balancing Humility with Principle
I’ve been reading Rabbi Joshua Liebman’s classic, Peace of Mind, and came across a section on open-mindedness and moral confidence I thought would resonate with the Ethics Bowl community.
“Tolerance is not moral apathy or easy deviation from established principles. If we say apathetically, ‘One notion is a good as another,’ we are not being tolerant; we are merely being lazy… Dense, unenlightened people are notoriously confident that they have the monopoly on truth… But anyone with the faintest glimmerings of imagination knows that truth is broader than any individual conception of it… Renan’s remark that our opinions become fixed at the point where we stop thinking should be sufficient warning against premature hardening of our intellectual arteries, or too stubborn insistence that we are infallibly and invariably right” (76).
Much of the world behaves otherwise, but cocksure arrogance vs. relativistic indifference is a false dilemma.
The mature approach, which takes time to develop, is instead one of principled humility – a desire to seek moral truth combined with a willingness to change our minds.
And that’s exactly the disposition that Ethics Bowl fosters.
Linking Ethics Bowl Cases to Philosophy Club Topics Guide
Here’s an in-depth article from EthicsBowl.org regular Michael Andersen, an Ethics Bowl coach and Philosophy Club adviser at Vancouver School of Arts & Academics. “Linking Ethics Bowl Cases to Philosophy Club Topics” [PDF copy below] will provide you some ways to extend your school’s positive energy and enthusiasm beyond the Ethics Bowl season.
I consider Michael THE authority on this sort of thing, and I’m thrilled that he’d take the time to produce this especially detailed guide for his fellow coaches, and offer it exclusively here at EthicsBowl.org. In fact, I think we’ll host it permanently on the Resources page…
Look forward to more from Michael here on the blog. He may or may not be joining as an official co-editor!
AI and Ethics Bowl: Enhancing or Undermining Critical Thinking Skills?
The following article, including the title, was written by ChatGPT. Why? Earlier this semester I caught a student using AI to complete their weekly reflection prompt in my Ethics Intro. I gave them a zero, but was encouraged by Ethics Olympiad (Australian) students, a retired mentor (thanks, Gary!) and others to try AI for myself, and think about how we might use it symbiotically – to think of it as a valuable aid rather than an enemy or competitor. Enjoy, Matt
As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to advance and become more integrated into our daily lives, ethical questions about its use and development are becoming more pressing. One area where these questions are particularly relevant is in the field of applied ethics, where AI is being used to think through complex ethical cases. One example of this is Ethics Bowl, a competition in which teams of students analyze and debate ethical dilemmas. Some teams are now using AI tools to help them prepare for Ethics Bowl, raising important ethical questions about the role of AI in ethical decision-making.
On the one hand, using AI to analyze ethical cases could be seen as a positive development. AI tools can quickly identify relevant ethical principles and concepts, help teams to identify potential consequences of different courses of action, and provide guidance on how to approach difficult ethical decisions. This can be especially helpful for students who are new to the field of applied ethics and may not have as much experience thinking through complex ethical dilemmas.
However, there are also several potential ethical concerns associated with using AI to analyze ethical cases. One concern is that relying too heavily on AI could lead to a reduction in critical thinking skills. If students become overly reliant on AI tools to identify ethical principles and make decisions, they may be less likely to develop the skills needed to think through ethical dilemmas on their own. This could have negative implications for their future careers and their ability to make sound ethical decisions in a wide range of contexts.
Another concern is that AI may not always be able to accurately capture the nuances of ethical decision-making. Ethical decision-making often involves considering a wide range of factors, such as the consequences of different courses of action, the values and beliefs of different stakeholders, and the potential impact of decisions on different communities. AI may not be able to fully capture these nuances, which could lead to oversimplification of complex ethical dilemmas.
Additionally, there are concerns about the potential biases that may be present in AI tools. AI algorithms are only as unbiased as the data they are trained on, and if the data used to train the AI is biased, the AI may produce biased results. This could have negative implications for Ethics Bowl competitions, where unbiased analysis and decision-making are essential.
In conclusion, while using AI to analyze ethical cases may have some benefits, it also raises important ethical questions about the role of AI in ethical decision-making. As AI continues to develop and become more integrated into our lives, it will be important to carefully consider the ethical implications of its use in fields like applied ethics. Ultimately, the goal should be to use AI tools in a way that enhances our ability to make sound ethical decisions, while also preserving our ability to think critically and to recognize the nuances of complex ethical dilemmas.
Our Baby, My Body – NHSEB 2022-2023 Regionals Case 13 Discussion Agenda and Resource Links
Regular EthicsBowl.org contributor Michael Andersen prepared the below Philosophy Club agenda / mini-curriculum for his Ethics Bowl team and generously agreed to share it with our readers. If you know a coach, please share! This is sure to elevate the thinking of any team that takes the time to explore the hyperlinked videos, articles and other resources. And this is definitely a case we want the Ethics Bowl community considering. Enjoy, and thanks as always, Michael!
Bookable Scrimmages Now Live
As promised, the NHSEBAcademy Studio recently began offering Zoom-based supplementary coaching. Beyond the Staffed Scrimmages, teams also have the option to book a Case Brainstorm session, Presentation Consultation or Practice Q&A.
That this is free and available to any team — public or private, seasoned or rookie, near or far — is marvelous. Coaching on the public speaking aspects will help so many inexperienced and shy participants. And I think the Case Brainstorms will be especially helpful. So often we get caught up in the competitive aspects. A chance to simply share ideas and explore lines of reasoning may be the best way to promote the true spirit of Ethics Bowl yet.
Special thanks to the Parr Center and Team NHSEB for making this superb resource available. Click here to check it out, and please help spread the word!