Osceola County School for the Art’s Speech and Debate club is hosting a “Big Questions” debate this week! Big Questions Debate is set to take place on September 24th, after school at OCSA, from 4:30 PM-7:30 PM in the Expo Hall. 

The Big Questions Debate is the newest event from the National Speech and Debate Association. The topic for the Big Questions Debate is whether or not “objective morality exists,” which must be supported by evidence from religion, philosophy, and science. Ms. Apryl Taylor, Speech and Debate sponsor, says that in order to encourage schools to start trying this, the organization “has a grant set up where you can apply to host an event that’s just for this type of debate.” The debate serves as a fundraiser for Goto Memos and will raise money for students’ trip to Nationals, which is in Chicago this year. Five students in the past two years have participated in the National Tournament and were the only students in the county to participate. “If you get 3 schools present you get $400, and then for each student that competes, you get an extra $20. So, we invited schools from around Osceola County. We’ve got a bunch of students from our school coming in order to raise as much money as possible,” Ms. Taylor explains.

The Speech and Debate club meets in Ms. Taylor’s room second half of lunch on teal Thursdays and Fridays. At the meetings, varsity students split among the beginners to help them research and complete scrimmages. According to Ms. Taylor, Speech and Debate members develop many skills, such as “public speaking, learning how to form an argument, how to think critically, how to research, how to persuade, all the things that go into argumentation.” 

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask Ms. Taylor.