The Washington State Middle School Ethics Bowl will be held at Villa Academy in Seattle on Sunday, May 23, 2027.

Registration: Registration will open in January 2027

The Washington State Middle School Ethics Bowl involves teams of students, grades 5-8, analyzing a series of wide-ranging ethical dilemmas involving topics such as cheating, plagiarism, peer pressure, relationships, and AI use. The event is intended to promote collaboration and dialogue. 

Unlike debate, teams are not forced to take adversarial positions or hold fast to an assigned perspective. They can agree with each other and are not required to refute each other’s points, but rather to offer commentary on one another’s arguments.

The cases used at the event draw from four cases that are posted in the Cases and Resources tab, with one round involving a “cold” case.

Teams are judged according to the quality of a team’s reasoning and how well team members organize and present their cases, analyze the case’s morally relevant features, engage in a civil and thoughtful exchange, and anticipate and respond to each other and to judges’ questions. 

Judges for the Washington State Middle School Ethics Bowl come from the local legal, education, and philosophical communities. 

For more information, contact us at info@plato-philosophy.org.

The 2027 cases and associated resources will be posted here in late fall 2026.