Hosting Resources for Licencees
Congratulations, your institution is licenced to host Ethics Olympiads. Here you will find a step by step guide about how to run an Ethics Olympiad including all the resources that you will need to run the event.
This website will be updated regularly during the year. Please “bookmark” this website. If there is anything missing here that you think might be useful for you to successfully run an Ethics Olympiad, please contact us via email and we will get back to you ASAP. Each year we will provide you with an updated password.
The Ethics Olympiad has a proven track record of providing teachers and students with a creative vehicle for developing skills in communication, critical thinking and respectful discourse while dealing with important and interesting ethical issues.
At an Ethics Olympiad, we refer to students as “Eth-letes” as like athletes they are in training for excellence in ethical thinking. Unlike debating, students can take the position they decide to take. They work as a team to come up with the best possible answer to difficult ethical questions.
If you are running an Ethics Olympiad ideally, more than three heats will provide students with an opportunity to engage with a range of teams and provide scores that accurately reflect their skills. But you might also use it as a classroom resource. This licence extends to all members of the licenced institution and can be used by the licensee within a school or by the licensee across schools.
The shape of your Ethics Olympiad is up to you. You can title the event as you wish e.g The Sydney University Ethics Olympiad or the Moreland College Ethics Olympiad. You can run the event as a competition between teams of students or as a classroom activity.
We have divided this website into the following headings in the hope they might be helpful to teachers. “Classroom Ethics Olympiads” provides resources for teachers to use with a class group. “Philosophy Club Ethics Olympiads” provides resources for teachers responsible for school or university-based Philosophy or Ethics clubs. “Online Ethics Olympiad” provides licensees with all they need to run an Ethics Olympiad online. Finally “Face to Face Ethics Olympiads” provide anyone with all they need to run an Ethics Olympiad where participants are located in a hall.
If you are producing your own website as part of the process of running and Ethics Olympiad please include the following image with your licence name included. Please also use it on any documentation you make public.
This initiative builds on very successful Ethics Bowls in the US and Philosothons in Australasia. The National High School Ethics Bowl is coordinated by the Parr Centre for Ethics at the University of North Carolina. The National Philosothon is co-ordinated by the Australian Association of Philosophy (AAP).
In 2007 we initiated a competition in Perth Western Australia called a Philosothon. This involved nine Perth schools. In 2022 over thirty West Australian schools and three hundred interstate schools are participating in annual Philosothons. The first Australasian Philsothon took place in Sydney NSW at Cranbrook in 2011 and these events are now hosted annually by the AAP. Philosothons are also taking place in the UK.
In the United States, tertiary institutions have run “Ethics Bowls” on a yearly basis since 1995. Each US state holds regional Ethics Bowls and this culminates in the National US Ethics Bowl. In 2013 the first National High School Ethics Bowl was run at the University of North Carolina and it was a great success. Each year the top schools from each US state gather at the University of North Carolina for three days of competition.
Ethics Bowls are different to Philosothons. Students at the Ethics Bowl and an Ethics Olympiad sit with a team of 5 students from their own school and collaboratively present a position in response to a single question given at the start of each heat. In a Philosothon one student from each school sits in a circle and together with students from other schools they explore possible answers to philosophical questions that students have previously created.
Before an Ethics Olympiad, the participating coaches are given a packet of case studies that present ethical issues to study. The goal for the teams is not to do research on the cases, but to be able to formulate well structured, logical answers to a single question that is asked about the cases. This is done as a collective exercise with both teams using critical thinking skills to come up with the best possible answer.
In 2013 a trial was held involving US schools and Australian schools using video conferencing technology and Skype to bring the schools communities together. The trial was a great success. Thereby the Ethics Olympiad was born and has been run since then annually. In 2018 we opened the event to Middle and in 2021 we hosted the first Junior Schools Ethics Olympiad. In 2019 we ran trials in Canberra and Melbourne. This involved teams of students and their coaches involved in a day-long face to face program with three heats and a final at the end of the day. Teachers participated as judges in the heats and then tertiary specialists judged the finals. This program was immensely popular and so by 2020, we had Ethics Olympiads running in 12 capital cities throughout Australia and New Zealand.
Due to the arrival of Covid, in 2020 we had to cancel all 12 Senior Ethics Olympiads but instead, we ran online trials instead for member schools using Zoom and these were sufficiently successful that we decided to run the Middle School Olympiads online later that year. We went on the run Senior and Junior School Ethics Olympiads online in 2021. This has proved to be a boon for the Ethics Olympiad with many regional and remote schools able to be involved and access to excellent judges throughout the world.
In 2026 we will again run Ethics Olympiads and training clinics for Junior, Middle and Senior School students and coaches.
All hospitals and universities have “ethics” committees, many companies have an official “ethics” code, and lawyers are required to take “ethics” training. But when academic philosophers use the term “ethics” they’re talking about the reason-guided study of what we morally ought to do. That isn’t to say that doctors, companies and lawyers don’t use reason (they most certainly do), or don’t make decisions about what we morally ought to do (they most certainly try). It just means that what makes philosophical ethics distinct is that the ultimate grounding for philosophers’ conclusions is reason itself, as opposed to preferences, company policy, or legal precedent.
Ethicists and Philosophers use reason to form “arguments,” which are composed of a series of claims, called premises, intended to logically support another claim, called the conclusion. They construct, share, evaluate and revise these arguments in a collective effort to figure out what makes the most sense. No conclusion is beyond revision, and any good ethicist is willing to change his or her mind on most any issue, if given good enough reason to do so.
An Ethics Olympiad provides an excellent forum for educators to assist students in developing good ethical arguments.
An Ethics Olympiad within a classroom environment is a wonderful and engaging way to develop skills in students. You can use this program with little or no student preparation or a great deal of preparation and planning.
There are five simple steps to setting up an Ethics Olympiad with a class group. Please note it does not have to be scored. The procedure is the same for Senior School, Middle School and Junior School Ethics Olympiads. You are welcome to modify the format to suit your specific needs. Most of the resources are able to be edited. If you place any resources on a website please ensure the following label is included.
Please contact us going forward if you have any questions.
Step one- Set a date and time for your first Ethics Olympiad. You will need a prize at the end for the Gold medal-winning team members. No need to purchase real Gold, a pack of Chocolate Gold coins will be fine. We are assuming you will run this face to face but online is an option if your students are at home.
Step two- We can provide you with eight current ethics cases (See ‘cases’ tab), or you can use your own cases. You can provide participants with these cases or announce them on the day so they are familiar with the material beforehand. Another option is to introduce the case or cases to the students without them seeing it beforehand.
Step three-As part of your licence you have purchased an ‘online application’ that provides you with everything you need to run your event in the classroom. You will need to set up that program with the number of heats you want, and the cases beforehand. You will need to set up the room as follows. You will need to project the Ethics Olympiad program onto a screen. Please see the diagram at the bottom of this page titled Match format.
Here is a link to the online application (ethicsolympiad.online/management)which you will use during the day. Please ensure you have completed the training before you distribute the password-protected application link to others.
Step Four
Make sure you are familiar with the rules and procedures. Click here for the rules and procedures.
Step Five- You can judge a heat involving two teams of 5 students. Alternatively, you can find others to judge who will offer an objective assessment of the quality of the arguments presented and provide good questions and feedback for the students. If you have a class of 20 students then two separate tables each with a judge on it works well. This person will ideally be a respected community leader or an ethicist. Please pass the following guidelines, score-sheet and criteria to judge (s) beforehand so they are prepared.
Click here for the judge’s guidelines.
Click here for the judge’s score sheet.
Click here for the judges scoring criteria.
On the day simply run the program…Here is the link to your presentation, or you can access it through the management app application. Get a student to read the case from the projector screen. Collate the scores at the end of each Heat and then award the winning teams Gold, Silver or Bronze medals at the end of the event.
Any questions- contact; admin@ethicsolympiad.org
The Ethics Olympiad is a great way of engaging and challenging students to think through issues carefully. A Philosophy Club is a great opportunity to engage students and what better resource is there than this program. Simply set up the program with an Ethical case of your choice….project the Ethics Olympiad Software Application program onto a screen and allow students to choose teams. Involve students by getting them to select the case for the following weeks Philosophy Club meeting. Better still get the students to select the cases they want to discuss at the start of each term. There is your Philosophy Club program for the term.
There are five simple steps to setting up an Ethics Olympiad in a Philosophy Club context. The procedure is the same for Senior School, Middle School and Junior School Philosophy Clubs. You are welcome to modify the format to suit your needs. Most of the resources are able to be edited. If you place any resources on a website please ensure the following label is included.
Please contact us going forward if you have any questions and be aware of the terms and conditions associated with this licence.
Step one- Set a date and time for your first Ethics Olympiad.
Step two- We suggest you use your own cases in the context of a Philosophy club or pick a current case from the case set provided. There are also many cases available with this program. (See Cases Tab) You can provide participants with these cases beforehand via email or announce them on the day.
Step three-As part of your licence you have purchased an ‘online application’ that provides you with everything you need to run your event face to face. You will need to project the program onto a screen….and run through this with your Philosophy club.
As part of your licence, you have purchased an ‘online application’ that provides you with everything you need to run your philosophy club meeting. You will need to set up that program beforehand. And set up the room as follows. 5 students at desks on either side of the judge/moderator.
You will need to project the Ethics Olympiad program onto a screen.
Step Four
Make sure you are familiar with the rules and procedures. Click here for the rules and procedures.
Step Five- If you are running this as a competitive event you will need to find a judge who will offer an objective assessment of the quality of the arguments presented and provide good questions and feedback for the students. This person will ideally be a respected community leader at your school or an ethicist. Please pass the following guidelines, score-sheet and criteria to the judge (s) beforehand so they are prepared.
Click here for the judges guidelines.
Click here for the judges score sheet.
Click here for the judges scoring criteria.
On the day simply run the program…
Any questions- contact; admin@ethicsolympiad.org
Ethics Olympiads can be run either online between schools or within a school, across campuses. There are 5 simple steps to setting up an online Ethics Olympiad. The procedure is the same for Senior School, Middle School and Junior School Ethics Olympiads. It is similar to one-on-one Ethics Olympiads, where one school participates with another or where multiple schools participate. (Please note that you will need permission from the Ethics Olympiad to run an interschool Olympiad with multiple schools in case these conflict with existing Ethics Olympiads.) You are welcome to modify the format to suit your needs. Most of the resources are able to be edited. If you place any resources on a website please ensure the following certification label is included.
Please contact us going forward if you have any questions.
Step one- Settle on a date and time for your Ethics Olympiad. If you are running an Olympiad with schools in multiple time zones you will need to make sure your start and finish times suit all participants. You need to give enough time for teams to register if your Olympiad involves multiple schools. If you are charging a registration fee to cover costs, then you will need to be clear on this upfront. Costs will need to include the cost of medals and if needed hiring judges. We suggest you use Zoom to run your online Ethics Olympiad and so you will need to “Schedule a Meeting” time in that format.
Step two- We can provide you with eight ethics cases (See Cases” in toolbar) or you can use your own cases. If you are running the event as a competition you will need to provide participants with these cases well beforehand, so they are familiar with the material before the day. If you are wanting your event to lead onto the international final, then you will have to use the cases provided and you will need to notify us of the Gold and Silver medal winning teams before the end of June each year.
Step three-As part of your licence you have purchased on online application which allows you to setup and run your Ethics Olympiad online. Click here for the management application This program will be used by you to set up the event.
Your judges will need to use the online application that you create .Here is a link to the online application which your judges will use during the day. Please ensure you have completed the training before you distribute the password-protected application link to your judges.
Step Four
Make sure you are familiar with the rules and procedures. Click on this link to watch a short video that outlines the online format and how to conduct an Ethics Olympiad.
Step Five- If you are using this licence with multiple schools you will need to find judges who will offer an objective assessment of the quality of the arguments presented and provide good questions and feedback for the students. This person will ideally be a respected community leader or an ethicist. Please pass the following guidelines, score-sheet and criteria onto the judges beforehand so they are prepared. If you need help finding a judge please contact the Olympiad office)
Click here for the judges guidelines.
Click here for the judges score sheet.
Click here for the judges scoring criteria.
Finally, your students will really enjoy the opportunity to engage with other students on these important issues. On the day you will need to share a power-point which provides guidelines / protocols and which gives team allocations for the day.
Any questions- contact; admin@ethicsolympiad.org
Setting up a ‘face-to-face’ Ethics Olympiad is very similar to an online Ethics Olympiad with the obvious difference that you will need to have a hall space available for the day.
There are some simple steps to setting up a face-to-face Ethics Olympiad. The procedure is the same for Senior School Ethics Olympiads, Middle School Olympiads and Junior School Olympiads.
Set a date and time for your face-to-face Ethics Olympiad. Give enough time for teams to register if you are involving teams from other schools. Each heat takes roughly 1 & 1/4 hours. A four heat program will take six hours with breaks. Three Heats will require roughly 4 hours. Create a title for your face-to-face Ethics Olympiad and notify admin@ethicsolympiad.org so it can be included in their calendar.
Feel free to provide coaches with one of the information kits, designed to reflect your event. (See templates)
We can provide you with eight ethics cases (See “Cases” link in the toolbar for the latest cases) or you can use your own cases. If you are running the event as a competition you will need to provide participants with these cases well beforehand so they are familiar with the material before the day. If you want your event to lead onto the international final, please negotiate this with us beforehand, then you will have to use the cases provided and you will need to notify us of the Gold and Silver medal-winning teams before the end of June each year.
You will need to find judges who will offer an objective assessment of the quality of the arguments presented and provide good questions and feedback for the students. These people will ideally be respected community leaders or/and ethicists/philosophers. Please pass the following
guidelines, score–sheet and criteria onto the judges beforehand so they are prepared. If you need help finding a judge please contact the Olympiad office)
a. Click here for the judge’s guidelines.
b. Click here for the judge’s score sheet.
c. Click here for the judges scoring criteria.
You will need to set up the event using the management application. See the User Guide.You will need to send the judges the event link once you have set this up. If set up correctly you will find the link here. Once you have created an event on the application the Software will guide you through the process of running your event.
Here you will find case sets from the past 10 years. You are welcome to use any of these cases. The case sets for the current Ethics Olympiads are also included below.
Case Set 11 (2018) Middle School
Case Set 13 (2020) (Middle School)
Case Set 16 2021 (Middle School)
Case Set 2022 (Junior School)
Case Set 18 2022 (Middle School)
Case Set 19 2022 (Senior School)
Click on the links above for a printable version of the case sets.
Rules
Teams
- Remember, this is not a debate. Teams can agree with each others position.
- Teams should consist of not more than 5 members and no less than three members.
- At the start of each heat, fresh scrap paper will be needed for team members to make notes during the match, but pre-prepared notes and any other materials are prohibited.
- The moderator/judge will keep the official time of each period of the match. Teams may use their own timers with the following restrictions and conditions: the timer cannot be any device that stores data or connects to the internet and a team may not time the portions of the match when the other team speaks or confers.
- Students do not have to be familiar with Ethical theories in order to participate in the event. However, they are encouraged to explore alternate positions to the position they take.
- We urge teams to provide an outline of at the start of their presentation —that is, the team should explain who will be discussing which aspect(s) of the case and why. This way, a moderator/judge will know what kind of presentation to expect.
- Students are encouraged to read the cases carefully beforehand and the linked resources to understand the full breadth of the cases, determine their positions, and make the strongest possible presentation. Although teams may use outside research to prepare for a match, they should not assume that merely presenting factual information will impress the judges. Teams need to propose valid, sound, persuasive arguments that are buttressed by facts to score well. If a team introduces a specific fact not contained in the case, the team should cite the source (e.g. “according to a 2011 article in National Geographic…”).
Online
- If you are participating online, please make sure you ‘microphone’ is turned off unless you or your team is invited to speak by the moderator/judge during your assigned times.
- During private conferences (the 2-minute conference or one-minute conference), students should ideally be located in one room, in which case they can turn their microphone off. If team members are located in multiple locations due to a covid lockdown they will need to organise a separate online forum for team meetings. If they are using this facility they must not be speaking on that forum at any time apart from the allotted team conference times.
- If there is a Covid lockdown we will make extra time provisions for teams and coaches to participate from home.
Moderator/Judges
- Should direct their questions to teams based on the discussion, not to individuals.
- The moderator/judge can allow a team to finish a sentence once time has expired.
- A timer will be used which everyone can see. But if for some reason that is not working teams will get two standardized time notifications from the moderator/judge during their presentations: one three minute warning and one when one-minute warning.
- The moderator/judge controls the room during matches and should address any unacceptable behaviour including, but not limited to: Coaches, parents, or audience members communicating—verbally or non-verbally.
- If there are outside distractions, noise interference, it is up to the moderator/judge, not a coach or a parent, to decide if the round should be paused.
- Teams must answer the case question during their presentation period. Teams are judged and scored on how well their members clearly and systematically address and respond to the question asked.
- Teams will not be penalized or rewarded whether one person contributes or everyone in the team contributes. Judges should neither penalize nor reward a team for using either approach: both are welcome.
- When one team confers or speaks, the other team and any audience members must remain silent although writing and passing notes is permitted. (For example, when Team A is given the case and question, they are allowed to confer for two minutes and then present for five minutes. During those five minutes, Team B is permitted to write notes but must remain silent.
- The decisions of the moderator/judges is final and the heats will be totalled at the end of the day and the results publicised within 24 hours. Where there is a tie the Head judge will select the winner from the following process. The highest scores in the first heat….if that is still a draw the highest score in the second heat and so on.
- If there is a complaint or challenge to the results this should be put in writing to the host.
- The results will be emailed to supervising teachers and moderator / judges.
You are welcome to use this Logo on all your correspondence and publicity.
If the matter is urgent please ring us on 0400029660
Ideally and in most instances, an email will be a better form of communication. Please email us at admin@ethicsolympiad.org
User Guide (Updated 2025)
