2013 STUDENT DEBATES: Scientific Issues That Arise from a Connected World

Extract

The Entomological Society of America's (ESA) Committee on Student Affairs organizes the student debate competition at the national meeting of ESA each year. The debate competition was specifically designed to increase the critical thinking skills in the student members of ESA, as well as to discuss contemporary issues about entomology that are of interest to people attending the annual meeting. The Entomology 2013 Student Debate Competition followed a slightly different format than that of previous years. Each topic was related to the theme of the meeting: “Science Impacting a Connected World.” Two of the topics were a traditional pro vs. condebate; the third posed a specific, globally significant problem and teams were challenged to describe and defend what they determined to be the most effective solution to ameliorate that problem. The topics were:

Below, each of these topics is presented with an unbiased introduction followed by the solution-specific stances of each of the debating teams.