Category: Coaching

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Excellent Ethics Bowl Overview Video

I’m coaching a new high school team this season (while putting the final touches on Ethics Bowl to the Rescue! Saving Democracy by Transforming Debate – due out VERY soon), and in looking for an example of an Ethics Bowl to share with them, came across this excellent overview video by Dr. Sean Riley, Long Island HSEB championship-winning coach, Baylor philosophy Ph.D., and Chief Strategy Officer of Stony Brook School. He covers differences between Ethics Bowl and traditional debate, how to frame and work through cases (decide if it’s more policy or interpersonal, identify stakeholders, adopt an empathetic mindset), and even works through an example: ‘Til Death Do My Part, from the 2023-2024 regional case set. It’s really good – good enough for me to immediately share with my team. So, coaches, as you’re recruiting and welcoming new team members, consider doing the same. It would of course work equally well for Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl and Ethics Olympiad teams.

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Free Ethics Bowl Summer Workshop July 25-26

One week from tomorrow, there’s a free online Ethics Bowl workshop for new and experienced coaches, team members and organizers at the collegiate and high school levels. Often, events like this are either college or high school. I’m so glad to see the cross-tier collaboration.

Attendees can follow one of three discussion tracks: Ethics Bowl in the Classroom, Producing the Ethics Bowl or Engaging the World. If you’re busy during the day Friday and Saturday morning, no sweat. Friday the 25th is simply a pre-workshop “ABCs of Ethics Bowl” session from 4-5. Then Saturday the 26th the fun will run from 11:30-6:30 Eastern.

Hosted by our friends at the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl, sponsored by the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, I’m signed up and very much looking forward. Only problem: can’t decide whether to follow the In the Classroom or Engaging the World track… Hope to see you there!

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Continuing the Conversation: a Post-Bowl Discussion Topic and Guide

If your regional Bowl is over and your team didn’t advance, that’s no reason to disband. Thanks to Coach Michael Andersen, you can easily pivot into Ethics Club mode with this ready-made discussion guide. It’s even tied back to a couple of old Ethics Bowl cases. And if you’d appreciate more off-season resources like this, post a comment or shoot me an email at matt (at) mattdeaton.com! Perhaps we can accommodate.