The First Washington State High School Ethics Bowl
The first Washington State High School Ethics Bowl was a great success! It was held on Saturday, February 1, 2014, on the UW campus here in Savery Hall. The event was hosted by the UW Center for Philosophy for Children and involved 22 teams from 13 high schools and an array of lawyers, judges, philosophers, business people and others that volunteered their time to serve as judges and moderators.
Congratulations go to Seattle Academy for coming out on top in this year's competition! They will advance to the National High School Ethics Bowl which takes place on April 4 - 5, 2014, at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
Congratulations to all the teams including second place winner: Lake Washington High School, third place winner: Roosevelt High School, fourth place winner Chief Sealth High School, and Spirt of the Ethics Bowl winners(tied): Lakeside High School and Stem High School.
All high schools in the Pacific Northwest are invited to participate in the 2015 Washington State High School Ethics Bowl which takes place on January 31, 2015. More information about participation can be found at the UW Center for Philosophy for Children Website at: http://depts.washington.edu/nwcenter/ethicsbowl.html
Ethics Bowls are collaborative yet competitive events in which teams analyze a series of wide-ranging ethical dilemmas. These exciting tournaments are a great way for students to deepen their understanding and appreciation of interesting ethical and philosophical issues. High school ethics bowls typically utilize case studies relevant to young students, such as questions concerning cheating, plagiarism, peer pressure, use and abuse of social media, privacy, and relationships, as well as political and social issues such as free speech, gun control, cloning, parental consent, and stem cell research. For example, in this year's final round students were asked to analyze forced fatherhood and compensations for non-profit executives with the following questions:
Is it ethical for men to be held financially responsible for children they did not want while women have the ability to choose to get an abortion?
Should non-profit executives be paid competitive salaries, or is it unethical for executives of state-subsidized non-profit organizations to earn $100,000 or more in annual salaries?
Although the High School Ethics Bowl is competitive, it is intended to promote collaboration. Teams do not have to take pro/con positions; in fact, they can agree with each other. They are not required to refute each other's points, but rather to offer commentary on one another's arguments. Teams are judged according to the quality of a team's reasoning and how well team members organize and present their cases, analyze the case's morally relevant features, and anticipate and preemptively respond to commentary and questions.
The 2014 Ethics Bowl was generously sponsored by:
Cable, Langenbach, Kinerk & Bauer LLP
Savitt Bruce & Willey LLP
Stoel Rives LLP
University of Washington College of Arts & Sciences, Division of Social Sciences
University of Washington Department of Philosophy
University of Washington Program on Values
University of Washington School of Law