For high school Ethics Bowl teams not ready for the season to end, our friends with TKEthics are hosting an online event on March 19th. While it’s billed as the Senior European Ethics Olympiad, teams of 14 to 18-year-olds from anywhere in the world are invited. However, one complication is that CET = Central European Time, which is 6 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time, meaning it’ll run from 3:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. EST! But it least it’s via Zoom, and at least it’s on the same calendar day – participating in Australian Ethics Olympiads sometimes means confirming not only the correct time, but the correct day. But from my experience, the chance to do Ethics Bowl (Ethics Olympiad is essentially the same as Ethics Bowl) with smart, compassionate folks in other countries is well worth the lost sleep.
** There’s also a TKEthics Spring Invitational on February 28th with better hours. Not exactly the same as Ethics Bowl/Olympiad, but related – check it out here.
The best of luck to all who participate! Good coffee recommended. And thanks to Archie and Davida for sharing!
The talented HSEB team from “The Bowl” discussing a case.
I recently interviewed Eli Yetter-Bowman, founder of Ethereal Films and lead documentarian for the new film, The Bowl, about a team of young women who compete in the National High School Ethics Bowl nationals at UNC. An amazing Ethics Bowl outreach tool, check out the trailer and order an institutional license at the film’s project page here.
Eli, I understand you’ve been involved with Ethics Bowl for many years as a judge. Why did you initially get involved and why have you continued? What have you found toughest about judging? What have you found most rewarding?
I got involved about ten years ago as an undergraduate Philosophy student at UNC who unwittingly took a class that had me mentor a local high school. I immediately fell in love because it was the first experience I had at Carolina that felt rooted in direct community engagement. I volunteered every year that I could because I still find it to be the absolute best activity at the UNC Philosophy department by a longshot. So much of Philosophy is abstracted from society, whereas this is directly benefiting local students by making them more careful, considerate and independent thinkers. I haven’t been able to volunteer since filming the Bowl as I was removed from the mailing list but hope to be reconnected.
Volunteering for so long I’ve seen that the most practical issues for judges are that the center organizing is relying on volunteers but struggles with outreach. This was a key reason I invested so much time and energy into creating this film to provide a community lift, but it has been incredibly difficult truth be told. Judging holds a great deal of power in dictating the outcome of matches despite a severe lack of heterogeneity among judges. I personally spend a lot of time preparing and considering all elements of matches when making those decisions, but that’s been developed over years of doing the activity. My hope would be that greater exposure to the program would broaden the net of judge volunteers to improve the fairness and quality of the pool.
Towards the end of the film, one of the students vaguely recalls a form she filled out for producers on how the team might or might not want to be portrayed. Was that real? If so, what sorts of questions were included and what was the purpose behind them?
No, as the student says this was a dream. However, all students and their parents, since many were under 18 at the time, completed general release forms. Still, it was more of a priority for the filmmakers to create an environment where, if any of the students were ever uncomfortable, they felt safe to voice it to the crew. The students feeling safe and able to be themselves on camera was extremely important, and without that trust, I don’t think the film would feel as special as it does.
What’s been the initial response to the film and how can interested folks view it?
Resoundingly described as HEARTWARMING. The students are truly exceptional in their intelligence, patience, and charisma throughout our journey. It’s amazing to have a story that leaves people feeling better off while also teaching them about such an important activity. The film is available now for educational & institutional screenings – simply submitting a request to your school library, public library, or allied business/non-profit on the project page. Educational licenses allow us to give the film to educators for free to use forever, while supporting the ~3 years of labor that went into making this film.
Thank you, Eli, for the interview and the awesome film! We’ll soon follow up with producer Ava Roan Richesin-Dodd. In the meantime, check out the trailer if you haven’t!
^ The little guy with the Harry Potter book was my team’s unofficial mascot at the Tennessee HSEB back in 2018. Tomorrow, 17-year-old son Justin well serve as my team captain 🙂
The best of luck to the Ethics Bowlers competing in Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas (at a brand-new Bowl hosted by Texas A&M) this weekend!
Remember that we’re the uniquely collaborative noncompetitive competition, that winning is largely irrelevant, and that the real purpose of the Bowl itself is to encourage all the growth that’s already happened during prep.
So, enjoy yourselves, make a new friend or two, and be proud! You’re teaching the rest of us how this deliberative democracy thing is done.
P.S. Thank you, organizers, coaches, judges, moderators, and parents!
*2/4/2026 UPDATE* Reason & Rationality organizers reached out to confirm that they are running a middle school program this summer. Details:
Program for Rising 7th and 8th Graders This is a new, small middle-school program hosted at The Pingry School’s residential Pottersville campus in rural New Jersey. The theme is Rational Individuals, Responsible Systems. Students take part in guided conversations about such topics as:
how individual incentives can produce unintended group outcomes
when cooperation breaks down and how societies repair it
controversial issues like AI and cell phones in schools
The program is designed for intellectually curious middle-school students who want a real kick out of serious conversation. Students looking at boarding schools get a taste of prep school dorm life. More information here: https://www.reasonandrationality.com/pingrymiddleschool
Original Post: As high school teams complete final preparations for Ethics Bowl regionals this month and early next (my team’s is next Saturday), families may be interested in a 2-week summer program at Princeton University that aligns nicely with Ethics Bowl’s mission and style. Reason & Rationality‘s curriculum is broader than Ethics Bowl’s applied ethics issue focus. But the emphasis on open-mindedness, collaboration, and deep thought would definitely feel familiar to any Ethics Bowl fan, and I imagine a graduate would return even better at and more committed to the Ethics Bowl way. They apparently also have a middle school program, though it’s unclear whether it’s available right now [it’s now clear – see above]. But the high school program is scheduled to run two separate cohorts in early and late June, and will be led by young professors and grad students not only not only Princeton, but Harvard as well.
IEB teams should be aware of a prestigious ethics essay competition for which they would likely be very competitive. Established in 1989, the Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics Essay Contest is only open to college students enrolled at 4-year institutions, and the deadline is coming up fast on January 20th. But if you, your team members, or someone you know might qualify and be interested, please spread the word.
AI usage is grounds for disqualification, so ensure folks are leveraging those organic human brains. Essays should be between 2,500 and 3,500 words, full guidelines are here, and here’s this year’s prompt:
2026 Essay Theme: Silence, Conscience, and Responsibility
Is silence an act of compassion or complicity?
When does silence protect dignity and when does it betray it?
When silence becomes complicit, what is your moral responsibility?
Do we owe the world our voice or does the world sometimes need our silence to heal?
Reflect on a time, in your life or in the world, when silence itself became an ethical choice.
What did that moment teach you about conscience, courage, and responsibility?
Engage us. Enlighten us. Explore the ethics of any question that moves you, whether drawn from the tension between silence and speech, or from any other moral challenge, close to home or across the world. We are eager to learn from you.
Free hint to Ethics Bowlers: consider engaging Rochester Institute of Technology Professor Lawrence Torcello’s 2014 article, “On The Virtues of Inhospitality,” which is all about silence and responsibility, available for download here, overview video here. Good luck!
Ethics Bowl Organizers: here’s a new judge recruitment video all but guaranteed to turn your lukewarm “Maybes” into enthusiastic “Yeses!” The secret is SuperSocrates. He’s irresistible…
Credit to Northern California HSEB co-organizer Chris Ng for the idea!
If you do something because it helps others, but also because it helps you, does that dilute the praiseworthiness of the action? In other words, are more selfless acts morally better? On the other hand, could pursuing good for others + good for you actually amplify an action’s praiseworthiness – make it a better action overall? Or would your whys have little impact on an action’s praiseworthiness? Perhaps outcomes are all that matter – intentions be darned?
Why all the questions? Because NHSEB case 6 is about 17-year-old college hopeful Erin, who founds a nonprofit to spread literacy, but also because it will look really good on her college admission applications.
There’s some intuitive appeal of Erin doing it because it will help others. But it’s hard to blame her for also wanting to improve her chances of getting into the college of her choice. All things considered, we probably wouldn’t criticize Erin for helping to cultivate her community’s love for reading. But if we had reason to think 95% of her motive was to get into Yale and only 5% was to promote literacy, we’d probably think less of her than were those %s reversed. The questions are, how much less would we think of her, why, and how should our judgments about Erin influence the motives that we ourselves suppress or nurture in our own decision-making?
As you begin to think about the specifics of Erin’s case (always read the specifics), as well as related areas good judges might ask you to tackle, consider the “Very Helpful (But Optional) Resources for Further Exploration” in coach Michael Andersen’s excellent study guide below, as well as the entire thing. Thanks as always for the awesome study guide, coach Michael!
Yesterday APPE announced the teams advancing to the IEB national championship in St. Louis March 7th and 8th, as well as the cases. The cases and schedule are here and the teams below.
All will be competitive, but based on past performance, reputation, and/or coaching, teams to watch include 2025 IEB champs Macalester, Whitworth, Stanford, UC Santa Barbara, Florida, UMBC, Utah State and Utah Valley, DePauw, Snow, and West Point.
Congrats to all who made it – see you in St. Louis!
Case 8 in the high school set and case 3 in the middle school set (same case: “Fido as Feed”) invites teams to weigh the nourishment of zoo animals against the emotions of pet owners. Or, at least that’s one way to frame a zoo in Denmark that invited donations of “unwanted but otherwise healthy animals” to be used as food for their carnivores.
The idea is to allow the zoo animals to enjoy the whole meal – fur, organs, bones, and all – as they would in the wild. And zoo officials specified that they’re not requesting cats or dogs, which was probably a smart PR move, but rather “chickens, rabbits, or guinea pigs,” as well as horses. The Ethics Bowl case doesn’t mention horses, but that species was indeed included in the zoo’s request.
My high school team said this case made them sad. And they did indeed look and sound sad while discussing it. But it also gave them a chance to think about how we treat similar species differently. The same person who provides a cushy indoor life for their beloved cat might add bacon to their cheeseburger without a second thought. And when it comes to how that cat might be treated as it nears the end of its life, it seems a person would either have to be very callous or very enlightened to volunteer it to be ripped apart by a tiger, even with reassurances that it would be humanely euthanized first.
I sense fruitful connections to how we treat the cadavers of people who donate their bodies to science. But before making that leap, check out coach Michael’s excellent-as-always study guide below, tailored to work for either a high school or a middle school Ethics Bowl audience. Enjoy!
What if you made plans with friend A, but then friend B came through with tickets to see your favorite band? What if you had a friend that your other friends wanted to exclude from a group trip to the movies? What if you accidentally revealed a friend’s secret and worried they’d hate you if you confessed?
Longtime philosophy professor and Ethics Bowl supporter Dr. Jana Mohr Lone recently released a new illustrated book series, What Would You Do? Moral Dilemmas for Kids, and addresses these questions and more in her beautifully illustrated title on Friendship. I ordered a copy on Amazon and was quickly reminded how relationship lessons first experienced in childhood extend across our lifespans. Just as some friends made more of a point to attend our birthday parties, some friends make more of a point to honor our special projects. Just as some friends took up for us on the playground, some friends are more outspoken allies in the office and on social media. And just as then, some of our present day friends are more deserving of the title, as well as the affection and loyalty that come with it. These are the sorts of realizations good interpersonal Ethics Bowl cases bring to the surface, but with Lone’s guided questions and the playful art, the insights come even more effortlessly, and regardless of the reader’s age.
Each section begins with a scenario, followed by carefully articulated prompts, and then finally some possible paths a thoughtful person could take. If you’re a team captain choosing basketball players, should you try to stack your team with the best athletes? Or should you honor your buddy who couldn’t hit a layup to save his life, but who loves hoops so much that he legally changed his name to Jordan? If you picked him first, he’d be thrilled, but your team would likely lose… and your motives would likely be obvious. So maybe it would be better to simply ensure he’s not picked last? However, as Lone invites the reader to consider, your decision’s impact on non-friends’ feelings is relevant, too. (Perhaps this is a scenario with wisdom older readers might relate back to assigning responsibilities within the family, classroom, or workplace?)
“It’s not easy to balance your feelings for your friend and your role as team captain. You don’t want to make your friend feel bad. But you also wonder if choosing team members based on friendship will affect the other players’ feelings.”
In addition to the pictures here, you can peek inside on the book’s Amazon page and see for yourself how you might work this entry on friendship into a class assignment or as a gift to a parent or child you love. And as Lone says in the closing paragraphs in her notes for parents and teachers, the goal isn’t so much to dictate how kids should feel or even what they should do. But to simply ensure they’re thinking and feeling, and doing so in an earnest, honest way.
“It is useful for children to be able to talk about their responses to the kinds of scenarios described in this book, and to learn strategies for evaluating the right ting to do in various circumstances. The goal is not necessarily to find that one right answer, but to be able to think through the issue and arrive at a reasoned decision… Ultimately, we want children to become reflective and sensitive, ethical adults.”
And it’s this goal of developing “reflective and sensitive, ethical adults” that Lone has been achieving for many years as a leader within the philosophy for children movement, which we in the Ethics Bowl community certainly share. Thank you for the excellent book, Jana!
Other books in Mohr Lone’s What Would You Do? Moral Dilemmas for Kids Series include titles on:
