In their first year competing, a team of five Langley students won the Baltimore Area High School Ethics Bowl on Feb. 9.

The five students–seniors Drew Armstrong, Caitlin Duffy and Erik Pike, and juniors Jane Sevila and Monique Swirsky–were coached by their Nature of Knowledge teacher, Ms. Allison Cohen.

In the Ethics Bowl, each team is given 10 real life ethical scenarios and judged on how they apply ethical theories taught to them in class. Scenarios deal with theories such as utilitarianism, deontology, egoism and virtue-based ethics. There are three rounds, and the team with the most points at the end is the winner. The Ethics Bowl differs from a debate competition in that teams are encouraged to agree with one another.

“It challenges [the students] to see nuances of situations and not be dogmatic in their responses,” said Ms. Cohen.

Langley’s team practiced after school once a week for two weeks and every day the week leading up to the competition.

“What it really came down to was that we heavily relied on the information that we had learned in the ethics unit during our Nature of Knowledge class. Ethics is interesting because it takes everyday problems and makes you think about why you do what you do and why you think it is right,” said junior Jane Sevila.