“The Ethics Bowl has prepared me to go into a conversation ready to have my mind changed.”
– Seattle high school student

Created over thirty years ago in a college classroom by philosophy professor Robert Ladenson, the Ethics Bowl prepares students to appreciate the virtues of living in a deliberative democracy and nurtures habits of mind that strengthen local, national, and global citizenship. It now engages involves thousands of students across the country and the world.

The Ethics Bowl is a collaborative yet competitive event, similar to debate but different. Teams do not take adversarial positions but rather work together to analyze and clarify a wide range of ethical dilemmas. Teams are judged on the quality and depth of their ethical and practical reasoning, including their ability to present coherent arguments and recognize and consider likely objections to those arguments. Teams are also evaluated on their ability to engage in ethical discussion while maintaining a collegial, respectful tone.

Since its inception, the Ethics Bowl has embraced the spirit of experimentation and innovation. Launched as the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl in 1993, it was adapted for the National High School Ethics Bowl in 2012. The Middle School Ethics Bowl launched in 2019. Classroom Ethics Bowls in grades 4 and up began in 2022. The Ethics Bowl now involves thousands of students – in colleges, high schools, middle, and elementary schools – across the country and the world.

CASE LIBRARIES

PLATO Ethics Case Library
Free, open-access library. New cases and study questions, written by middle and high school students, are added to the library annually.  

National High School Ethics Bowl (NHSEB)
Each year, the National High School Ethics Bowl publishes a set of new cases.  Cases from previous years are also archived on the website. There are also other Ethics Bowl communities that write their own cases.

University of Texas Ethics Unwrapped
The site includes more than 70 cases that pair ethics concepts with real world situations.

Please credit the source of any case(s) you use. Thank you!

“I think exposure to ethical problem solving makes for wiser, more thoughtful and civic minded teens.”
– Parent of High School Ethics Bowl student

The basic ingredients for a successful ethics bowl haven’t changed much since Bob Ladenson created the event in his college classroom: two teams, a moderator, a panel of judges, some cases to discuss, a format outlining who will converse with whom and for how long, scoring sheets and rubrics, and the understanding that the dialogue remain civil.     

Experimentation and innovation have always guided the Ethic Bowl’s development.  Over the years, many variations have been tried. Successful innovations, most of which were developed by the Washington State High School Ethics Bowl, include: 

• Use of “cold cases” which students have not seen or prepared, including extra time for them to discuss the cases before the match begins
• An “open dialogue” portion of the round, during which teams engage in a self-moderated discussion
• Discussing one case per round rather than two (developed by Kent Place School for the Middle School Ethics Bowl)
• Not announcing winners at the end of each round
• Altering the round procedure to include new elements such as:
  • A “final question” to both teams asking about which point(s) made by the other team they found most compelling
  • Altering the time allotment for each portion of the round
  • Modifying the scoring rubric and score sheet

For questions about or resources for any of these innovations, contact us at info@plato-philosophy.org.