We Rock!

The last two days have been filled with tournament rounds and the competitive KLO lab wouldn't have it any other way. Despite competing against much more experienced debaters, we did quite well. Our best finish was Hailey Lopez who had a record of 4 wins and 1 loss which combined with her speaker points to put her at 17th seed, one away from breaking to elimination rounds. On Wednesday we took a break from the tournament rounds to have an official lab lunch. While eating with your lab was a first for some of the other labs, it was part of a daily routine for KLO. Thursday was a bit more intense. With the end of the practice rounds coming up, we decided to employ some of Beena's intimidation techniques. Instead of socializing before the fifth round, we spread out around the lobby and did speaking drills to prepare for the round. Overall it was a fun tournament, and we are looking forward to the last day of camp.

What can we azzume about this?

We can all say that as 9 PM grew closer, our attention spans grew considerably smaller. This was definitely understandable due to our extremely informative and intense debates with the Melin/Thompson/Abell lab. While we debated with the MTA lab yesterday, we got input from Mr. Timmons on a few rounds. Hailey learned that her negative case could make an affirmative squirm with her definition of "ought," but also learned how important a crystalization can be for a rebuttal. Mark had his first debate with someone outside our lab, and did an excellent job defending Societal Welfare on the negative side. Nick and Kayla both learned the importance of CX, as well as dropping arguments, as they attempted to debate over economic gains and worker welfare.

Everyone participated in lectures again today. Some of us chose to learn more about Social Welfare from Eric Melin, others focused on time allocation and issue selection from David McGough, a few got drilled to the max with Shane and Gary Johnson, while still others focused on their persuasive speaking skills through presentation from Liz Miller and Jennifer.

Despite the rain, many participated in a game of football after dinner. While no one suffered after-dinner cramps, some of us did get a bit dirty. Wild Will, Knarly Nick, and the ladies of the class took on the rest of the boys in a truly astounding and physically challenging game (anonymous sources have informed us that Brian Kim is quite the tackler, and it takes at least 3 full-grown gentlemen to bring Wild Will down). 

The tournament begins tomorrow, and we're ready for war! 

Let's switch it up!

We did not meet as a lab very much today. We were too busy making doorMATs out of the Melin, Abell, Thompson lab. In all seriousness, it was great to gain additional experience by debating a different skill set and receiving feed back from different lab leaders.
After lunch we had a lab meeting where we discussed the different arguments we had heard and various problems that occurred in our practice rounds. Then we practiced giving rebuttals in a time efficient manner with a few drills directed by Beena.
Next was dinner followed by elective lectures and then a camp lecture over preparation by Beena and Mr. Timmons.

Bring It On

The day was filled with some very serious argumentation... the good productive kind, that is. We debated with the AM (alston and mullins) lab today. It was terrific to hear some new arguments as well as get new perspectives from Liz Mullins and Jonathan Alston. Mr. Alston gave Preethi excellent suggestions on time allocation, and Eric learned how to use on case arguments to his greatest advantage from Shane and Jennifer.

Everyone also got the chance to go to an elective lecture today. Many of the students were enthralled with Mr. Alston's Introduction to Logic. Many students enjoyed what Mr. Alston had say, and expressed interest in seeing speak again.

Lab was spent discovering the weaknesses in our cases, and also finding which arguments we had trouble attacking and defending.