COLLABORATION: Dr. Michael Roe and Mr. Robert Ayres introduce the Ethics Bowl to Poly.
By Natalie Apostol, Staff Writer
Poly’s brightest students will team up to participate in the Ethics Bowl. Ethics Bowl is a competition where high school students analyze a series of ethical and philosophical dilemmas. Although it is a competitive event, students collaborate with one another to debate issues and deepen their knowledge.
Principal Dr. Michael Roe and Honors World Literature/ Philosophy & Ethics teacher, Mr. Robert Ayres, worked together to create the brand new team at Poly. “Chapman University reached out to me and asked me if we would be interested in going for the Ethics Bowl,” Roe explained.
The Ethics Bowl competitors will form two teams to make one squad. Mr. Ayres and Mrs. Alexia Wilson will coach the students to their competition in February. All teams will be presented a case involving an ethical issue and are required to make their claim and support it through logic and reasoning. “It’s not about who defeats who, in terms of schools, but who has the best reasoning skills to reach a conclusion,” Roe stated.
Though it is similar to Mock Trial in a sense, the students of Ethics Bowl do not memorize their cases but will be tested on their ability to improvise and think swiftly on their feet. While Mock Trial is more procedural, Ethics Bowl goes much broader.
Students are eager to join the new extracurricular activity and take on challenges through personal input and teamwork. “I knew I wanted to try out for the ethics team the moment I heard about it. I have been apart of other athletic and technical teams at Poly but this would be the first that would strictly utilize my mind,” Itzel Crusoe (12) expressed. “It would be a great way to broaden my spectrum of learning,” Deborah Platt (10) added.
Though the program is still in its developmental stage, it will be a successful endeavor for Poly High School and its most intelligent students.