Ethics Bowl

The Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl is an activity that combines the excitement of a competitive tournament with a valuable education experience for undergraduate students. Created in 1993 at the Illinois Institute of Technology, the Ethics Bowl has grown steadily over the years. Resembling a college bowl or quiz bowl competition, a moderator asks two teams questions that pose an ethical problem on topics ranging from professional ethics to social and political topics, and are then scored by a panel of judges on their responses both to the question and one another. Since 1997, the national Ethics Bowl Competition has taken place every year at the annual meeting of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics.

For the past few years ten regional bowls have taken place throughout the U.S. with over 100 teams competing. The top thirty-two teams are then invited to participate in the national competition.

Along with the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl for undergraduates, a number of other ethics bowl competitions are held, including ones sponsored by the Society for American Archeology, and competitions for High school students sponsored by the University of North Carolina, the University of Baltimore and the University of Tennessee. The Parr Center for Ethics, at the University of North Carolina, is the headquarters for the National High School Ethics Bowl.

An international version of the same event has been established using technology to bring high school students together called an Olympiad.

While the organization of Ethics Bowl tournaments can vary from region to region, single rounds generally follow a given format. Four to six weeks before the date of the competition, the competing teams, judges, and moderators are given a packet of case studies that present ethical issues to study. The goal for the teams is not to do research on the cases, but to be able to formulate well structured, logical answers to questions asked about the cases.

In the round, both teams are each asked a question about different case studies. The team answers questions in the following way. First, the moderator poses a question to the team, and after one minute to confer, the team must state their answer. The responding team then has one minute to present a response to the first team's answer, and the first team then has a chance to respond to these comments. Finally, the panel of judges has the chance to ask questions of the first team, either to clarify a point, or to elicit a team's viewpoint on an ethical aspect raised in their response. The judges then proceed to evaluate the first teams' response and the second team's comment based on the following criteria: clarity and intelligibility, focus on ethically relevant factors, avoidance of ethical irrelevance, and deliberative thoughtfulness. The round then repeats this format with the second team receiving a question about a different case.

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