About Ethics Bowl/APPE IEB®

Welcome to the home of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl^®, also known as the APPE IEB^®. APPE IEB^®is a unique, collaborative experience for undergraduate students that provides valuable educational experience in practical and professional ethics.

Teams spend hours analyzing and preparing for regional and national competitions to see who has thought most deeply and presented their arguments most clearly on cases based on today's most pressing issues. Students develop ethical understanding of complex, ambiguous, and difficult to resolve issues, as well as key virtues associated with democratic deliberation.

W atch a short video about the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl

Have questions? We want to hear from you. Reach out at contact@appe-ethics.org or 765-658-5015 to get connected with an experienced member of the Ethics Bowl community.

Competition Process

The APPE Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl® is a tiered competition. Each year during the months of November and December, 12 regional competitions take place at various locations throughout the United States. The top scoring 36 teams in those regional ethics bowls qualify to compete in the APPE IEB® National Competition held in the early spring each year in conjunction with the annual APPE International Conference.

In advance of competition, each APPE IEB® team receives a set of cases created to explore a variety of topics within practical and professional ethics. Cases are written by Case Writing Committees and are drawn from areas such as: the classroom (e.g., cheating or plagiarism), personal relationships (e.g., dating or friendship), professional ethics (e.g., engineering, law, medicine), or social and political ethics (e.g., free speech, gun control).

Teams prepare an analysis of each case. During each competition match, a case is selected from the set and a moderator poses questions based on that case. These questions seek to delve deeper into the multiple ethical dimensions of the case. A panel of judges probes the teams for further justifications and evaluates answers. Rating criteria are based on intelligibility, focus on ethically relevant considerations, avoidance of ethical irrelevance, and deliberative thoughtfulness.

Learn more about competition cases, rules, and competition guidelines.
Learn more about the history of the APPE Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl®, including former winners.

Where are Ethics Bowl teams near you?

View this map of the 2023 Regional Participating Teams. Don't see one at your university? You can start one! Learn more about how to start a team.

2024 National Championship

The 28th Annual APPE IEB^®National Competition was held in Cincinnati, February 24 and 25, 2024.

Congratulations to the 2024National Competition Champion: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Coach: Andy Ackerman
Team Members: Abi Barbu, Zach Buckler, Marli English, Nina Simone Fisher, Ann Goulian

National Runner-Up: University of California, Santa Barbara

Coaches: Jon Charry and David King
Team Members: Isabelle Brady, Natalie Ries, Enri Lala, James Xie, Chaya Haugland, Griffin Baxley

The final eight teams included:

Taylor University (Semi-Finalist)
Whitworth University (Semi-Finalist)
Georgia Tech (Quarterfinalist)
Stanford University(Quarterfinalist)
Utah Valley University (Quarterfinalist)
Vanderbilt University (Quarterfinalist)

Pat Croskery Memorial Award

Congratulations to Andy Ackerman, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Recipient of the 2024 Pat Croskery Memorial Award!

The Pat Croskery Memorial Award is given to an ethics bowl coach or sponsor who exemplifies Pat Croskery's approach to teaching. Nominations are accepted from current and former students.

Pat Croskery was the chair of the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl Board of Directors from 2009-2013. He worked to shape the competition into its current form and was instrumental in creating the summer workshop. Pat passed away in 2019.

Pat was loved and admired by all who knew him. He had a way of living that put ethics at the forefront at all times, and involved an approach to interactions with others that exemplified respect for persons no matter what their views, combined with a commitment to civil discourse. For Pat almost any problem could be solved, and all issues could be resolved, by carefully listening to the needs of those involved, and finding a way for all to be satisfied. People in the Ethics Bowl community routinely sought Pat's counsel as he could be counted on to provide accurate and unbiased, yet compassionate feedback. As a teacher he was dedicated to students realizing the full value of the Ethics Bowl experience, which was not just about participating in an exciting competition, but about gaining respect for competing viewpoints, developing lifelong moral reasoning skills, and learning how to discuss complicated moral issues with those who hold different views in a way that serves to better society. Pat was a true mentor to many.

Bob Ladenson "Spirit of the Ethics Bowl" Award

Congratulations to Tufts University
2024 Bob Ladenson Award Recipient

Bob Ladenson, the founder of the Ethics Bowl, designed the activity to encourage a variety of intellectual virtues among college students including thoughtfulness and ethical sensitivity to a wide range of issues. The Ethics Bowl was also conceived as an activity in which students could practice and indeed model collegial discourse about controversial issues. The Bob Ladenson Spirit of the Ethics Bowl was created in 2013 to encourage participants to continue to honor this vision.

Each year, at the conclusion of the APPE Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl® National Championship, one team is recognized for having best embodied the qualities of civility and courtesy while also showing an appreciation for the ideas involved in the cases under discussion and striving to ensure a high quality of discussion of those ideas. Importantly, it is competitors themselves that vote for the team that is most deserving of recognition.

APPE Service & Virtue Award

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Are you an Ethics Bowl Alum?

Join the APPE IEB® Alumni Network and stay connected!

Alumni Click Here

Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl, APPE Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl, APPE IEB, and IEB are registered service marks of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics. These marks cannot be used without the express written permission of APPE.

About Ethics Bowl/APPE IEB®

Where are Ethics Bowl teams near you?

2024 National Championship

Want to Get Involved?

Are you an Ethics Bowl Alum?

The Association for Practical and Professional Ethics