Over 200 public middle school students from District 9 (D9) came to Roberto Clemente State Park on March 25 to debate about AI and its benefits and harms. Each participating school was organized into teams of 2 and debated a team of 2 from another school. The judges were teachers and high school students (72) from JHS 22 (09×022), Comprehensive Model School Project (09×327), Belmont Preparatory High School, University Heights HS, and Bronx HS of Business.
Each team tries to convince the judge that they are right, the other team is wrong.
We got to Roberto Clemente’s State Park by a bus that is Bx 18. The 218 debate team was the first to arrive at this large place that looked like a gym with drawings on the walls of different types of sports – kids and different colors. Our debaters settled down and practiced with their teammates what they were going to say to the other team using their looseleaf flowcharts to help them with the debate. Eventually, our teams of 2 were assigned a table number, a pro or con side of the resolution and left to debate another school.
Our journalism coach, Ms. Baker, told Adriel and me to take notes on one of our teams. After they completed one round they went on to the second round of debate. The two rounds took 2 hours to complete. The judges were taking notes to award the teams debate points for the final awards. After the debate was done we had pizza while they were telling us who received the awards. We celebrated by going to the playground! Then we went back to the school.
Ryan Spass, District 9 Instructional Lead for NYC Public Schools and coordinator with the New York City Urban Debate League, reflects, “With everything that is going on in the world, I would argue that our ability to debate, think critically and understand facts is the most important skill we can have, period. And what a great time to be debating the benefits and harms of AI.”
“Our District 9 partnership with the New York City Urban Debate League has been transformative; it has provided us another place to witness the brilliance of our students. The tournaments are easily my favorite events of the year.”
