The Debate Elite Tournament: Challenging Your Debating Skills at the Qualifying Round

In order to create opportunities for students to practice and improve their debate skills, PennSchool kicked off the Debate Elite Tournament in early 2024 and attracted more than 60 Elementary and High School students to participate in the Qualifying Round.

Officially launched on February 26 – 29, 2024, the Qualifying Round of the Debate Elite Tournament brought our #HomeOftheEagles a chance to express their opinions on the digital era through the theme: “Navigating the Digital Era: Balancing Progress and Well-Being.”

In the Qualifying Round, the students accompanied their teammates to participate in 10 divisions corresponding to Grades 3 – 12. At each Division, the match was arranged as a 1-on-1 face-off match, with the debating topic randomly selected. The time for each match is about 25 minutes, of which each team was given 10 minutes to prepare after receiving the topic. Each team had two turns to present and defend their opinions, where each student was given 1 minute to prepare and 3 minutes to present.

The 2 most excellent teams in each division would get a chance to enter the Final Round and compete for the championship trophy. In order to prepare the best performance for the Final Round, the students would participate in an advisory meeting with a special coach. Here, the student would practice presenting, discussing, and debating with the Coach to improve their competitiveness in the final showdown.

Estimated to take place in March, the Final Round will bring together debating elites from different grade levels. In this round, each team will be matched with another team within a specific time frame during their Debate. In this process, to ensure fairness, the Organizing Committee will consider and match the teams according to their grade levels.

In subsequent rounds of competition, the students will continue to hone and improve their multidimensional perspective and the ability to improvise upon new provocative topics, as well as undergo more rigorous evaluations from the judges.

Debate Elite Tournament 2024 is a practical and beneficial playground that helps students develop their critical thinking and improve their skills in debate and communication. Besides developing personal perspectives on current issues, the students also have the chance to enlarge their knowledge, perceive new opinions through discussions with teammates, and compete with opponents of various ages.

Through competitions, our #HomeOfTheEagles will gain an understanding of their complex, logical inner world, along with knowing how to communicate effectively to express their distinct perspectives, hence developing comprehensively, ready to become global citizens in the digital era.