The Ethics Bowl is a academic competition in which two teams of students answer questions about an ethics case study they have read earlier, and are scored by a panel of judges on based on criteria such as clarity, focus on ethically relevant factors, and thoughtfulness. Though the Ethic Bowl is usually a large event involving eight or more teams, it has also been successfully adapted by instructors for use in the classroom. In this format, the class is divided up into teams of 3-5 students and asked to read and discuss a a series of two or more ethics cases. The students come to class prepared to answer questions about the case studies, and are judged either by a panel of two or more faculty instructors or by a panel of student judges who have also read and discussed the cases as a group. You can read more about the format of the ethics bowl on the CSEP Ethics Bowl Web site. Feel free to adopt the rules and cases to suit your own needs, and please contact Kelly Laas at laas@iit.edu for help finding suitable case studies, or to help organize a class ethics bowl.
The Ethics Bowl is an academic competition developed by CSEP Faculty Association Robert Ladenson in 1993, which has grown into a national competition which involves over 100 schools nation-wide. You can read more about the national competition by visiting the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics EB web site.
