Debate is an activity for people interested in politics and argumentation. Participants receive bills or topics, research them to make cases, and then debate against participants from other schools. At Ankeny High School, we participate in two debate formats: student congress and public forum.

In student congress, students write bills, receive bills from other schools, and debate selected bill in a format that mimics to the processes of the US congress. This is an individual event where students prepare their own speeches and are scored individually based on the quality and content of their speeches.

In public forum, students work in pairs to debate for or against a monthly topic. In each round, they’ll be paired up against a team from another school and debate opposing sides of the month’s resolution. The team that most effectively makes their case and counters the opposing side wins the round.

The debate season starts in September and wraps up in January with the IHSSA state debate tournament. Exceptional debaters can qualify for the national tournament that takes place in June.