2025 Middle Ethics Olympiad Resources

Welcome to the resource website for the 2025 Middle School (10-14 years old) Ethics Olympiad. The links here will provide you with everything you will need to prepare teams for the upcoming Ethics Olympiad. This information will be particularly useful to anyone new to the Ethics Olympiad. Coaches should feel free to pass this link on to their eth-letes (students).

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.

Schools have entered 5-10 students to participate in the Ethics Olympiad. At the 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 want at an Ethics Olympiad. They work as a team, with teams from other schools to come up with the best possible answer to difficult ethical questions.

During the day all students will be involved in a series of four heats where they will be scored according to set criteria that rewards, clear, concise, respectful discourse around interesting ethical cases. Gold, Silver and Bronze medals will be awarded to the top three school teams. Gold and Silver medal-winning schools will be invited to represent their region and country at the International Ethics Olympiad final. 

CLICK HERE TO GO BACK TO THE MAIN ETHICS OLYMPIAD WEBSITE

This initiative builds on the very successful Ethics Bowls in the US and Philosothons in Australiasia. 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)

An Ethics Olympiad is a competitive yet collaborative event in which students analyze and discuss real-life, and timely, ethical
issues. Experience shows that the event encourages and promotes ethical awareness, critical thinking skills, civil discourse, international engagement, and an appreciation for diverse points of view.

The Ethics Olympiad builds on two initiatives, Philosothons in Australasia and Ethics Bowls in the US. In 2007 we initiated a competition in Perth Western Australia called a Philosothon. This involved nine Perth schools. By 2021 over thirty West Australian schools and three hundred interstate schools participate in annual Philosothons. The first Australasian Philsothon took place in Sydney NSW in 2011 and these events are now hosted annually by the Australian Association of Philosophy. 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 the event.  In a Philosothon one student from each school sits in a circle and together with students from other schools they try to explore possible answers to philosophical questions.

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 with many schools involved. 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 them participating 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.

In 2020 we had to cancel all the Senior Ethics Olympiads due to the outbreak of Covid 19 but 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 and in 2021 followed by a final for Gold and Silver medal winning schools in each region. We also enlisted and trained a judging panel of 25 trained Philosophy Majors from universities in Australasia and elsewhere. Since then, this model has proved to be a wonderful success with many regional and remote schools able to be involved annually and access to excellent judges throughout the world.

In 2021 we also introduced Junior School Olympiads and a series of training sessions to help coaches prepare students. 

“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.

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 philosopher is
willing to change his or her mind on most any issue, if given good enough reason to do so.”

Click here for a free copy of Dr Matthew Deaton’s book written specifically for students participating in the US Ethics Bowl.

Here is a link to audio chapters of Dr Deaton’s book in case you would like to pass this on to your eth-letes;

Ethics in a Nutshell Audiobook Chapter Links

Ch 1: Welcome 00:24

Ch 2: Ethics, Religion & Public Discourse 09:17

Ch 3: Why Ethics Isn’t Ice Cream 14:08

Ch 4: Three Key Distinctions 22:40

Ch 5: The Four Dominant Ethical Theories 30:36

Ch 6: All Things Considered 59:38

Ch 7: Argument by Analogy 1:07:35

Ch 8: Intuition, Reflection & Coherence 1:17:15

Ch 9: Conclusion 1:24:14

Lecture Notes 1:28:13

More Books by Matt Deaton 1:35:19

Further Reading 1:38:45

Program for the Day

* NT schools start at 8am finish at 2pm.
* Schools in India have a different start and finish time-To be confirmed.

• Starts 9 am – 9.15 am – Preparation
• 9.15-10.25 am – Heat One (Practice Heat)
• 10.25-10.30 am Short Break
• 10.30 am -11.45 am – Heat Two
• 11.45 Morning tea
• 12-1.15 – Heat Three
• 1.15 pm – 1.40 pm Lunch
• 1.40 pm-1.45 pm Announcements
• 1.45-3 pm- Heat Four
• 3 pm – Thankyous & Finish

Teams

We will be running optional training clinics for Junior High School (Middle School) students and coaches again in August 2025. These will be very useful for any participating students or coaches as they will have the chance to meet with experts in the field and some of the judges participating in the Ethics Olympiads. 

                   CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION

Click on this link for a printable version of the 2025 Middle School cases

• Click here for a printable version of the Coaches Resource Kit. This resource kit includes copies of the score sheet, rules and a guide for coaches preparing a team or teams.
• Click here for coaches’ tips.

• Click on this image below for a printable version of the 2024 Senior School cases.

• Click here for Information relevant to parents. Some of the following information might be useful in your correspondence with parents. Feel free to cut and paste information from this link, or you can include the link in your correspondence with parents.

• Click here for a printable version of the Students (Eth-letes) Resource Kit. This resource kit contains the scoresheet and other helpful information for students preparing for an Ethics Olympiad. 

• Click on this link for a printable version of the 2025 Middle Schools cases.

Teams

• Remember, this is not a debate. You can agree with each other’s position… but Team B can raise questions yet to be considered by team A in order to further the discussion.
• 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 materials are prohibited.
  
• Please make sure your ‘microphone’ is turned off unless 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 be located in one room, in which case they can turn their microphone off. If team members are located in multiple locations 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.
  
• 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 their presentation when it begins—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…”).

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 a time notification from the moderator/judge during their presentations. eg “You have two minutes left.”…”Times Up”
  
• 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—or demonstrably reacting to, team members during a match.
  
• Anyone in the breakout room who intentionally makes distracting noises while one of the teams, judges, or moderator has the floor will be asked to step out. Foul, insulting, or excessively graphic language or confrontational behaviour by anyone in the room will not be permitted.
  
• Please note, the moderator/judge can only control the noise within the breakout room. If there are outside distractions, 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 speaks 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 are 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 heats will be totalled at the end of the heat and the results publicised on the following day. 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 organisers.
  
• The results will be emailed to supervising teachers and moderator/judges.