Did you hear about Seattle? They just outlawed single-use plastic straws and cutlery in the city’s restaurants and bars. Do you think this is a good idea? It sounds like Topic #3 of our 2017-2018 debate season.
Final Words…
One teacher we spoke with had this to say about the debate program in their school:
Having never been a part of a team like this before, the children were able to experience things outside of their immediate world. I believe it was a great opportunity for them
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Rewards of Debate
We also asked debate teachers what were some of the rewards of being in the debate program. Here are some reponses:
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Making it to the finals and my students being able to lose without having any behaviors!
- Being a group and participating virtually;
- Feeding them (lol);
- Collaboration;
- Working as a team;
- Public speaking;
- Learning about a specific topic;
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Winning, pizza parties and learning about current/relevant social topics and events;
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Debating;
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Speaking and interacting with the other team.
Did you find that same rewards with your students?
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Challenges of Debate
We asked debate teachers what were some of the challenges their teams faced during the year. Here are some responses:
- Making the information relevent for students in an alternate assess programing;
- Winning the comprehension portion vs students who are stardard assess cognitively several grades above;
- Not wining to go on to round three;
- Arguing points that they didn’t believe in;
- Open ended debating with no notes;
- Relating to most of the debate topics;
- Answering other teams questions;
- Answering rebuttal questions;
- Reading aloud during the debates;
- Reading as well as the ability to speak in an emotionally charged fashion;
- Arguing for a side they didn’t personally agree with was challenging for many students;
- The researching and organizing.
What do you think? Did you also experience these challenges with your team?
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Final Debate Topic Slide
This is the slide that appeared for the final debates.
When all is said and done, what does the 2nd Amendment mean to you?
373K Debaters
In-class photos of debaters from 373K.
More photographs from the 2018 live championships.
(Contact us if you do not have the page’s password.)
Student Reflections 2018
Thanks to Laura Mayer, from 721M, for these student reflections, and congratulations again on your second place win.
From Alexis:
OMG! I was so scared, I was shaking when I got up there. I felt like there was something on my face but there wasn’t. I was getting stage fright.
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The Champs are Here
Congratulations to this year’s Debate Champions! They are…
2018 High School Finals
The 751 MSCD Eagles
The 721M Cityhawks Revolutionaries 
The 373K Fire Debaters 
368K Brooklyn’s Finest Debate Team
1st Place: The 751 MSCD Eagles
2nd Place: The 721M Cityhawks Revolutionaries
3rd Place: The 373K Fire Debaters
Honorable Mention: 368K Brooklyn’s Finest Debate Team
2018 Middle School Finals
352X Bx Debates All Day
The 226M Debate Crew
The 169M Rising Scholars
The 25R Panthers 
1st Place: 352X Bx Debates All Day
2nd Place: The 226M Debate Crew
3rd Place: The 169M Rising Scholars
Honorable Mention: The 25R Panthers
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NFL to fine players who don’t stand…
In a new wrinkle to our 2017 debate topic, the NFL may start to fine players who refuse to stand for the national anthem.
Posters Posters Posters
Here are posters for the upcoming middle and high school debate championships.
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Middle School Match-ups
Competing in the Middle School Championships this year on May 30 will be: The 226 Debate Crew vs 352X BxDebatesAllDay. Congratulations to both teams for advancing to the finals!
Competing in the 3rd Pl/ Honorable Mention debate on June 4 will be the 25R Panthers vs the 169M Rising Stars. We can’t wait to see how it plays out.
Battle of the Boroughs
The High School Finals are set! Debating in the Championship match this year will be The 721M Cityhawks Revolutionaries (undefeated) against The 751 MSCD Eagles. This will be a battle of Manhattan for the title!
Debating for the 3rd Place and Honorable Mention awards this year will be The 373K Fire Debaters versus 368K Brooklyn’s Finest Debate Team, a battle of Brooklyn. Congratulations to all four teams (and the boroughs of Brooklyn and Manhattan) for an incredible regular season and playoffs, and good luck in your final debate!
High School Playofs
We almost forgot to publicly congratulate all of the High School teams that made it to this year’s playoffs! They are:
The 721M Cityhawks Revolutionaries
368K Brooklyn’s Finest Debate Team
The 373K Fire Debaters
The 993Q Rat Pack
The 751M MSCD Eagles
Championship Topic Announced
The topic for this year’s Championship Debates is: The Second Amendment Should be Repealed.
The top two teams in each bracket (winners of the playoff matches) will debate this topic on May 30 and 31 at 751M. The teams that do not do not go on to the finals will debate online on June 4 and 5 for 3rd Place and Honorable Mention titles.
Let the research begin!
Middle School Playoffs
Congratulations to this year’s Middle School Final Four teams! They are:
The 25R Panthers
The 169M Rising Scholars
The 226M Debate Crew
352X Bx Debates All Day
Stay tuned for the High School announcement and team match-ups, coming soon.
Who Calls the Coin Toss?
Round 3 is well underway this week with teams presenting convincing arguments on both sides of the single use plastics debate. One question that has come up is how the moderator determines which team was “logged in first” to call the coin toss. For the record, when the moderator signs on at 9am, they will prompt you to start the tech check. The first team to activate their video feed for the tech check gets to call the coin toss (heads or tails). The winner of the toss then gets to decide which side they choose for the debate- Pro or Con.
Plastic Roads?
Here is an interesting video from the BBC about a start-up company that is using plastic to make roads: Can plastic roads help save the planet?
Private Prisons, Revisited
Our 2015 final debate topic was “Should private prisons be legal?” The New York Times published an article describing some of the serious issues related to a private prison in Mississippi.
World’s First Plastic-free Supermarket Aisle
Can one aisle lead to a more sustainable future? Check out this video from CNN to learn more.
What are Bioplastics?
This short video from PBS Nova explains:
