Our annual district topic field trip kicks off the year by immersing the students in the resolution through hands-on and collaborative learning. This year’s topic—Resolved: New York City should support farm-to-school initiatives in school cafeterias—came alive at Queens County Farm, where nearly 400 students from over 30 schools gathered for a full day of exploration and debate.
Groups co-led by farm staff and league educators began with a hayride and pumpkin picking, then rotated through stations to learn how food is produced and argue both pro and con sides of the resolution. Tasting local versus mass-produced honey and comparing fresh versus frozen meal prep made the fiscal and logistical trade-offs tangible.
Research shows that these kinds of experiences matter. Students who build background knowledge read better, think more critically, and retain more information. The more debaters understand a topic, the easier it is to connect ideas — and the more confident they become in expressing them. Help us offer more experiences like this for our debaters!
