Debate tournament returns to Carson High this Friday and Saturday, volunteer judges sought
Submitted by Carson Now Reader on Sun, 12/04/2022 - 10:21pm
Event Date:
Repeats every day until Sat Dec 10 2022 .
December 9, 2022 (All day)
Event Date:
December 10, 2022 (All day) Carson High Speech and Debate is set to hold its first tournament since COVID shut down schools in 2020. This year, 14 schools and 150 students will gather at Carson High School for 10 rounds of competition Dec. 9-10. The event is open to the public and the team is looking for volunteer judges to assist in ensuring smooth rounds.
Judges will be presented with some of the most talented students in Northern Nevada that will both educate and entertain. Meals will be provided to volunteers both days and an optional judge training will be held at Carson High Wednesday from 5:30 to 7:00 PM.
For round times please use the qr code. (Click on the photo to enlarge and then use the code.) For questions please contact the head coach, Patrick Mobley at pmobley@carson.k12.nv.us.
Competitive events fall into three categories: Speech, interpretation, and debate. Speech events include impromptu, extemporaneous, and oratory. In impromptu students draw three topics and have two minutes to develop a speech. Similarly in extemporaneous, students draw three current events, but have 30 minutes to develop a news report style speech with sources. Oratory sees students present a prepared speech on an issue with a call to action to solve the problem.
Interpretation events this month are humorous interpretation and program oral interpretation. Students in humorous select a published work, cut it to a ten minute performance and develop characterization to make the piece funny. In Program Oral Interpretation students select pieces of poetry, prose, literature, film, theater, social media and news to craft an original story around a single theme.
Debate events begin with congressional debate, and continue with Public Forum, Big Question, Lincoln Douglas, and Policy. Much like a state or national legislature, Students in congress debate legislation submitted in advance by member schools and debate whether to pass or fail the proposed laws. Public Forum debate sees pairs go head to head to advocate for or against a topic.
The current PF topic is: The United States’ strategy of Great Power Competition produces more benefits than harms. Big Question debate can have single debaters or partners present cases on the topic: Humans are primarily motivated by self interest. Lincoln Douglas is a one on one philosophical debate around a moral value. The topic for this week is: The People’s Republic of China ought to prioritize environmental protection over economic growth.
Finally, policy debate is a partner event where one team presents a potential government policy to address an issue and the negation presents reasonst the plan should not be implemented. The policy topic is: The People’s Republic of China ought to prioritize environmental protection over economic growth.
