Students’ curiosity earns ethical success

A TEAM of five Loreto College Ballarat students have won the Victorian Ethics Olympiad.

Held via Zoom recently, Ann Chalakkal, Ella Gudgeon, Eloise Davenport, Bridie Carey and Remi Currie competed against 12 other schools from across the state.

Deeply thinking about high-profile but complex ethical issues of the world, they unpacked and discussed them from more than one perspective.

“Over the course of the day we had a practice round, and three actual rounds which were marked. Before the competition we were given eight case studies to look at that had very relevant information,” Ann said.

“One case study was about defunding the police and the Black Lives Matter movement in America, and there was another on the Tiger King, for example.”

Remi said the team was asked to look at these examples and more, and the ethical questions surrounding them to see how they “apply to a wider society.”

“We were posed each question, discussed them as a team, and had six minutes to present on our ethical view,” she said.

The opposing competitors then had three minutes to give comment, but not in a debate-style format.

“You’re not trying to be right. It’s about working together as two different teams to come up with the best position on the ethical dilemma,” Ann said.

“It doesn’t feel like a competition, it’s a discussion.

“The students on the other end of the computer are just likeminded people interested in social justice and questioning the world that they live in.

“But having public speakers, and three year 11s on our team who have studied unit two religion and society and had a really strong understanding of the ethical theory behind it, that really gave us a solid foundation and helped us move forward.”

Previously participating in the Victorian Philosothon, this “sparked an interest in all areas of thinking” for Ann.

“Ethics was another opportunity that came up and I thought, I’d love to do that. There’s always been a curiosity in me to want to know more,” she said.

Remi values the opportunity to have a strong understanding of what’s going on in society.

“It’s important that we go out of our way to ask these questions, go beyond our own perspectives, look at things from another point of view, and look at the consequences of our actions,” she said.

The Loreto team will now tackle the International Ethics Olympiad on Saturday, 3 July, exploring the same cases as they did in the Victorian Olympiad.

They will compete against approximately 33 teams online, including finalists from around Australia, and students from Singapore, New Zealand, Canada, Hong Kong and China.