On Saturday, Jan. 11, Tracy High School’s Ethics Bowl team competed at the University of California, Santa Cruz, for the Northern California Regional Competition.
“I thought it was a great experience,” co-president Aubrea Davis said. “I really liked seeing all the teams being able to make good ethical arguments.” High schools across Northern California compete annually in the event, with teams of three to seven students.
Tracy’s team of seven and their former advisor, Darin Haydock, attended the annual event, where teams discussed issues and controversies from a published case packet containing 15 ethical dilemmas. This year’s cases sparked discussions on the ethics of non-alcoholic drinks for minors, tourism, AI-human friendships, and more.
“I thought it was a really fun and welcoming experience,” sophomore and first-year team member Divya Pandya added.
“I think that, like, the meetings and stuff were pretty good,” IB diploma candidate Rylee Lewis explained. “I felt like I didn’t do my best at our competition, and I definitely think that it was a little bit less intimidating than I thought it would be. But overall, I had a lot of fun.”
The competition consisted of three rounds, two of which the team lost. Teams were required to present their stances on ethical challenges in a discussion format, using ethical theories to support their arguments.
The first round ended in a disappointing loss. Tracy High’s team fell short in explaining their ethical theory and felt their strict stance against non-alcoholic drinks for minors wasn’t well-received by the judges.
However, they entered the second round with a clear head and won. This time, they took advantage of the opposing team’s failure to use an ethical theory in their presentation and organized their response effectively.
The final round was hard-fought. Tracy’s opponents had a well-structured argument, but Tracy’s responses during the ten-minute judge’s questioning period were insightful. In the end, two of the three judges scored Tracy High similarly to the other team, but they fell short of victory by a few points.
“It was close—we almost won that third one,” junior Franklin Duong said.
Founded in the 2022-2023 school year, Ethics Bowl has consisted of a small team of students passionate about philosophy, ethics, and discussion. According to Lewis, the hardest part of Ethics Bowl was attending meetings and understanding the ethical theories.
“I’m such a busy person—I know everyone’s busy—but there’s not a single day where I don’t do stuff after school,” Lewis said.
To prepare for the competition, the club met every day after school during the week leading up to the event. Dubbed “hell week,” Lewis described it as “very tiring… I’m not going to sugarcoat it.”
However, she still remembered the week fondly. “We got closer during hell week… it was pretty fun,” Lewis said.
Ethics Bowl meets on Wednesdays in A210, their advisor Mrs. Crowley’s room.
