Each year we invite members of the community to serve as judges and moderators at our annual Ethics Bowl tournament. As a judge or moderator you will have the chance to listen to students from a variety of public, charter, and independent highs schools from across the state deliberate about the ethical implications of a variety of real world scenarios. A judge’s role in the ethics bowl is to gauge a team’s breadth and depth of thought as applied to a specific ethics case, while moderators manage the room and keep everything running smoothly.
The 7th Annual Rhode Island Regional High School Ethics Bowl will be held online on Sunday, February 5, 2023. If you’re interested in serving as a judge or moderator, please fill out this registration form or contact us.
About the Ethics Bowl
The Rhode Island High School Ethics Bowl is an annual competition in which high school students from around the state come together to discuss ethical questions. Students are encouraged to express and develop their own ethical commitments through a careful consideration of all relevant points of view.
See here for a video introduction to the Ethics Bowl.
Resources for Judges
Our friends at the Michigan High School Ethics Bowl created the very helpful 30-minute training video, with illustrations and explanations of the role of the judge, and many useful tips. If you want more tips and information (or if the skits in that video are too cheesy for your tastes), the NHSEB’s 50-minute training video is also very helpful. If you haven’t seen an Ethics Bowl round before, you can also watch an actual Ethics Bowl round in action.
To review the official rules for judges and look over the scoring criteria, see here: Documents for Judges
Resources for Moderators
The role of moderator is especially important, since you will be relied upon to “run the room” for the matches to which you are assigned. Most of you have been selected as moderators because of your prior experience with the Ethics Bowl format, but I recommend the 12-minute video to remind you of how a match should proceed. If you haven’t seen an Ethics Bowl round before, you can also watch an actual Ethics Bowl round in action.
To review the official rules for moderators and look over the moderator script, see here: Documents for Moderators