Extension Program

2019 Middle School Ethics Olympiad

On Friday 1 November, select students from Year 7 to Year 9 represented Aitken College at the first Melbourne Middle School Ethics Olympiad. This event was hosted by Scotch College. Teams from 14 schools around Melbourne were involved in a series of three heats in which students engaged in discussions of various ethical issues. Two Aitken teams competed and both did incredibly well, with one of our teams finishing in equal fourth place.

Our students enjoyed sharing their views with fellow ‘Eth-letes’ from other schools and discussing relevant ethical issues. This event offered the students the opportunity to further develop their critical thinking skills and expand their ethical awareness.

A huge thank you to the students for their remarkable dedication to this program. Below are some student reflections:

Ethics Olympiad was a great experience for everyone that participated, from the weekly meetings and training sessions, to the day of the competition. I think everyone got a lot out of the whole experience, and I personally found that it was a great way to understand the whole concept of ethics, and get into the problem solving of ethical dilemmas. The training sessions were very enjoyable. I found that the highlight of the experience was participating on the actual day; everyone was a little nervous, but it was very impressive how both teams managed to communicate about the dilemmas for a solid five minutes and go into their opinions and the reasons for them. Overall, the whole thing was a great experience for everyone, it’s a shame that it’s over, but I very much enjoyed it.

Shopra K (8S)

On 1 November, after many weeks of training and brainstorming, a group of us went to Scotch College to compete in the Middle School Ethics Olympiad. Prior to the day, we had all spent a few lunch times discussing topics and ideas around eight ethical cases. It was in these training sessions were together we learnt to look at situations from a utilitarian point of view which is a helpful life skill to have when stuck in tricky situations.

After a few weeks of training, it was finally the day of the competition. Competing in the Ethics Olympiad was extremely fun and everyone did extremely well. We displayed many skills which we will continue to use in the future such as teamwork and public speaking skills.

Sophie H (9K) and Hayley R (9T)

The Teams: