HCC Ethics Bowl Website

Ethics Bowl Phil 2289
Information on Ethics Bowl at HCC and the PHIL 2289 Ethics Bowl Class. Keywords: Ethics, critical thinking, debate, public speaking, philosophy.

 

 ETHICS BOWL CLASS/ CLUB

 

 

Class: Phil 2289

"Cooperative in Philosophy."

Instructor/ Coach: Jason Jenson   Coach: Cinnamon Jenson


WHAT IS IT?

ETHICS BOWL CLASS/ CLUB  : Contact [email protected]

This class/ club prepares a team of students to compete in a debate called "Ethics Bowl," competing with other universities in San Antonio in November.

The Ethics Bowl is a nationally recognized team debate competition where student teams examine ethical case studies drawn from a wide range of areas (biomedical ethics, business ethics, environmental ethics, personal ethics, etc.).

In the competition, students develop a position on the cases and defend it before a panel of judges and a competing team. After a team presents their position on a case, they are challenged with a commentary from the other team. They respond to that challenge and to additional questions about their position from the judges. Judges evaluate the team's performance in terms of the coherence of the  team's argument, whether the team thoroughly identifies and discusses the central moral dimensions of the case, and the team's response to challenges.

The Texas regional competition occurs each year in San Antonio usually in mid-November.  If we are successful in this competition, we will take the team to the National Competition. 

The HCC team is the ONLY collegiate Ethics Bowl team in Houston, and only one of two community colleges in the neighboring 5 states! That means we compete with research universities and liberal arts colleges from Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arkansas, and Louisiana.

CLASS: PHIL 2289. Cooperative in Philosophy.

CLUB: Please contact [email protected]

Interested students should enroll in PHIL 2289 in the Fall Semester.  (If you do not want to pay for the class or get academic credit, you can sit in on the class for free as a Ethics Bowl club member.) You do not need any special knowledge of ethics to participate. It is recommended, but not required, that you take an Ethics class (Phil 2306). We will use part of the class to prepare you on the use of ethical theories (Utilitarianism and Deontology). The rest of the class involves preparing the cases and practice debate.

 

WHY JOIN?

"The Ethics Bowl creates discussion on current and key ethical issues facing today's society. The team and I used critical thinking to better understand the different cases and defend our positions. Mulling over the cases week after week opened my eyes to new ways of thinking and approaching new viewpoints."

-Mia Perez, Ethics Bowl member, 2017.

 

Some of the life-long benefits are:

Critical thinking and analytic skills!

Communication skills and public speaking!

Knowledge of ethical theories and application to everyday life!

Leadership!

Teamwork!

Civic Engagement!

Skills in respectful, rational conversations!

Increase confidence!

Have fun!

Plus, it looks great on your resume/ CV. 

 

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PAST TEAMS

Here is what our 2017 and 2018 team members say about what the Ethics Bowl means to them:

THE VALUE OF ETHICS BOWL

 

2020 ETHICS BOWL TEAM: Online. 

 

2019 ETHICS BOWL TEAM.

7th place!

 

2018 Ethics Bowl team.

 

 

 

 

Ethics Bowl team, 2018. Chris Jenson, Cinnamon Jenson, RaeSheena Brown, Luke Kahl, Fernando Mancha, Dhaha Al Ogaidi

18th place!

 

 

 

 2017 INAUGURAL TEAM

15th place!

 

RaeSheena Brown, Phoenix Thompson, Rebecca Rivera, Yancey Elguezabal, Mia Perez

Our incredible team earned 15th place out of 24 colleges at the Texas Regional Ethics Bowl, Nov 11, 2018. We were the only team from Houston, and the only Community College!

 

 

 

 

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APPE INFORMATION:

 

More information about the National Ethics Bowl can be found at the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics website. Here is a link to the Cases, Rules, and Guidelines. You are encouraged to download some sample cases and an IEB Judges Scoresheet from this site.

 Here is a link to a "Judges training video"  which includes a sample debate.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oQ5b5gTsfEny4vRku9Gx3t9S9NRpd6rq/view 

See also: https://www.appe-ethics.org/assets/docs/Reviewing%20Judging%20Materials.pdf

And information at APPE: https://www.appe-ethics.org/cases-rules-and-guidelines 

 

CONTACT:

Phil 2289 is coached by: 

[email protected]

[email protected]

Please email for more information. 

 

The Ethics Bowl coaches and participants would like to thank the following making this class and experience possible.

Morgan Yette, Administrative Assistant for the Philosophy Department

Helen Graham, Philosophy Department Chair

Ted Hanley, Dean of the department of Humanities