Fall 2011: Anchorage Middle School Public Debate Program kicks off this week

The Seawolf Debate Program is launching a new initiative in November to get more of Alaska's students involved in academic debating. The Anchorage Middle School Public Debate Program will begin with a workshop hosted by UAA this Friday for 20 middle school teachers from Clark, Begich and Mirror Lake middle schools. The workshop will focus on integrating debating into the middle school curriculum and will encourage teachers to build debating programs at their respective middle schools.

The participating teachers will work with representatives from UAA to develop debating clubs and teams. Members of UAA's debate program will visit the participating schools to help students prepare for upcoming debates, do demonstration rounds and assist teachers in developing curriculum.

The initiative culminates in April 2012 with the inaugural Anchorage Middle School Public Debating Championships to be hosted by UAA. Representatives from the participating middle schools will come to UAA for a one-day competition that will crown the inaugural Anchorage MSPDP Champions.

Though only three middle schools are involved this year, the program will expand in coming years to welcome all of Anchorage's middle schools. This initiative fits well with the Seawolf Debate Program's other efforts to promote academic debating. With programs like the Alaska High School Drama, Debate and Forensics Championships hosted each year by UAA and the Cabin Fever Debates, an intramural debating tournament for UAA students not active on the Seawolf competitive debating team, the middle school initiative will provide a continuous track for students interested in debating from 6th grade through graduation from UAA.

For more information, please contact Steve Johnson, director of the Seawolf Debate Program, at steve.johnson@uaa.alaska.edu.