The Ethics Bowl Match

Who's in the room:

Two teams of usually 3-6 students each, a panel of three judges, a moderator, and spectators. The two teams are referred to as Team A and B. This is decided by a coin flip.

 

Match begins.

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The moderator reveals the Ethics Bowl case for the first half of the round. It would be among the cases that both teams have prepared for in advance.

 

See a sample case set here.

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1. Team A confers briefly (~2 minutes) to prepare their presentation on the case.

2. Team A presents on the case for ~5 minutes.

3. Team B confers briefly (~2 minutes) to prepare their commentary on Team A's presentation.

4. Team B comments on Team A’s presentation for ~3 minutes.

5. Team A confers again (~2 minutes), then responds to the commentary offered by Team B for 2 minutes.

6. Judges confer briefly, after which they ask Team A questions on the case and their presentation for ~10 minutes.

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This is the halftime of the match.

 

The moderator reveals the case for the second half of the round. The teams then switch roles. Team B is now the presenting team, while Team A is the team that provides commentary on Team B's presentation. Steps 1-6 are otherwise repeated exactly.

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After Step 6 of the second half, the judges tally their scores according to the rubric.

 

See the sample scoring criteria here.

See a sample scoring sheet here. 

 

Each judge casts a vote for either Team A or Team B. The winner is then announced.