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.
Judge/Moderator Registration
The 8th Annual Rhode Island Regional High School Ethics Bowl will be held in person on the Brown University campus on Sunday, February 4, 2024. If you’re interested in serving as a judge or moderator, please indicate your availability on this year’s Registration Form. You can also contact us with any questions.
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, and you can find more videos on the NHSEB site.
Resources for Judges
Judges are responsible for scoring teams and for helping them to further develop their discussion through the Q&A period.
The NHSEB is hosting two upcoming Judge Training Clinics, and you can view the 60-minute video of last year’s clinic on their website. Our friends at the Michigan High School Ethics Bowl have also created the very helpful 30-minute training video, with illustrations and explanations of the role of the judge, and many useful tips. 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, guiding the teams and judges through each phase of the match.
The NHSEB is hosting an upcoming Moderator Training Clinic. Our friends at the Michigan High School Ethics Bowl have also created a helpful 12-minute video to remind you of how a match should proceed (aside from a few new rule updates since that video was recorded). 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
The Cases
This year’s RI Regional will use the following 10 cases, taken from the 2023-2024 NHSEB Regional Case Set:
1. Intellectual Property, Unplugged…
4. Don’t Bank On It!
5. Tears of the Koroks
6. Well, That’s Debatable
7. Pain Au Chocolat
8. Gift Aversion Conversion Subversion
11. Monthly Subscription to Brutality
12. Sartorial Shuffle
13. A National Divorce
15. Minors, Not Miners!