Over the weekend, I was a guest judge at the National Bioethics Bowl, which was held in Tallahassee at Florida State University. Concurrently held was the National Undergraduate Bioethics Conference #NUBC2015. Undergraduate students from across the country presented their work.

During the bowl rounds, I loved watching the students, who were dedicated and excited, break into huddles and plan their answers and arguments. I was a judge for the final round – which ended in a tie between Samford’s team and the University of Alabama, Birmingham. Both teams were poised, adroit, and showed exemplary teamwork. After the final count of wins across the competition, UAB was declared the winner.

As a judge, the most difficult part was coordinating questions with my colleagues. At the end of each match (there were two matches per round), judges were given ten minutes to ask questions of the lead team for that match. Often, all of the judges would notice a peculiarity or a weak spot in the students’ argument, and we needed to work on the fly to avoid asking too many of the same questions. 

Thanks to the dedicated grad and undergrad students at FSU who made the event happen, including the inestimable David Miller.