Roslyn High School sent two teams to this year’s Long Island Ethics Bowl held at Hofstra University earlier this month. Both teams compiled impressive records of 3 wins and 1 loss and narrowly missed breaking to the Semifinal Round. One team, consisting of Abigail Flyer, Mahip Grewal, Felicia Hou, Chloe Kaplan and Yena Kim, won the coveted Spirit of the Ethics Bowl Award, which goes to the team best exemplifying the collegial, collaborative nature of the event.
To prepare for the Ethics Bowl, teams write cases in response to moral dilemmas. The dilemmas range from the personal such as how to deal with conflicts between friendship and other obligations to global issues such as whether it is ethical for developed nations to pay developing nations to deal with the potentially dangerous waste products associated with technological development. At the competition, teams are matched up against other schools and take turns presenting their case and responding to the case put up by their opponents. Dr. Allyson Weseley, the teams’ coach, commented, “The experience encourages students to see thorny moral issues from multiple perspectives. Their participation builds their collaborative, cognitive, and presentation skills, and this year’s teams did a fabulous job.”
“It’s a great experience,” said Chloe Levin, a two-year ethics team veteran. “The dilemmas are interesting and thought provoking, and working with a team to build a case is a lot of fun.” Even though the competition is behind them, team members will continue to discuss ethical issues as part of their experience in the Model Government Club each Friday afternoon.
