Upper Saddle River
June 6, 2012 THE VILLADOM TIMES III • Page 13
The Second Arya Memorial Debate competition was recently held at the Cavallini Middle School in Upper Saddle River. This year’s topic was renewable energy. Club adviser Stephanie Chamberlin noted that this year’s event included participants from both the seventh and eighth grades. “Last year, it was just the seventh grade, but many wanted to do it again,” Chamberlin explained. She added that there are currently 22 students involved in the club, and the students chose their topic. Prior to the main event, the students presented an audio-visual show introducing the audience to the basics of renewable and non-renewable energy. Weston Semkow, Elaine Zhang, Rachel Lee, and Ali Malik were responsible for the research and production of this show. Sixteen students then took part in the debate. James Harnett, Jason Won, Alan Liu, Dylan Koh, Neil Varghese,
Second Arya Memorial Debate held at Cavallini
Alyssa Coelho, and Tony Lutri argued as members of the pro team. The con team comprised of Mary Wang, Christina Xue, Mollie Bakal, Sam Ghorashi, Samson Silberman, Tommy DiMartino, Noah Britton, Georgia Cyriax, and Oscar James-Hough. Both teams made cogent arguments supported by thorough research, and presented pictures and pie chart diagrams. The pro alternative energy team used the visual appeals of the photos from Chernobyl nuclear disaster and data from scientific and statistical analysis of the industrial carbon dioxide emission. The con team used the pie chart diagram showing U.S. energy consumption by different energy resource categories. Debaters highlighted the known technological challenges and implementation difficulties associated with alternative energy production facilities. Costs were tied (continued on page 18)
Alyssa Coelho from the pro team making a point on carbon footprints caused by fossil fuels.