Be the best.  Be at Iowa.

LD Debate Institute is about a staff of champions training champions.  19 (and counting) former Iowa participants have won the NFL National Tournament!  Iowa is the institute that has trained more TOC Champions than any other institute in the country.  The personal and professional collegiality of Iowa's staff is unparalled.

At Iowa, the staff strongly believes in a collaborative work environment.  As a team, we encourage students to approach any staff member for help, guidance, or another perspective.  Iowa's policy and LD staff work closely with each other to provide additional arguments, ideas, and training.

Iowa is dedicated to one-on-one attention for each student.  Iowa's staff-to-student ratio promises the individual attention needed to gain the advantage on the highly technical argument issues challenging debaters today.  With the diversity of debate philosophies among our staff, we will develop a wide set of possible strategies on the topic throughout the Institute.

Iowa offers a revolutionary new approach to the summer learning experience--small numbers in each division, advance preparation of materials, an intensive and structured schedule, close communication among faculty and students throughout the year, extensive guided and independent practice, diversity in teachers, students, and curriculum, and our belief that students benefit from a variety of approaches.  It's

first-class debate preparation at an affordable price.

Labs

Iowa offers a unique approach for teaching LD Debate through 4 lab settings:

• Primary Lab will focus on specific argument development for one of the potential LD topics for next year.  Strategic elements of casing and refutation will be discussed and developed.  The application of theory to LD debate and skills development will take place in this lab setting.  Critiqued practice rounds will occur on the topic being researched by all staff at the institute.   This lab will be partnered with another lab forming the Interlab instruction discussed below.   
• Honors Lab will focus on strategic elements of casing and rebuttals that include the topic being taught by their honors adviser.  The honors adviser will be a different instructor than the student's primary lab instructor and their Interlab instructor.  This instruction will replicate the process undergraduate students receive in a college setting.  Students will engage in dialogue and approach topics through discussion and guided reading.  This presents students with more opportunity to interact with another staff member on a consistent basis, receive additional feedback on performance and strategic thinking, and access to differing viewpoints. 
• Elective Lectures provide students with the opportunity to access ideas and arguments not presented in either their primary lab or honors lab.  Students can gain access to additional topics being taught at the institute, receive instruction on the application of advance debate theory, discuss specific philosophers, build their arsenal of arguments, enrich their understanding of refutation and in-round strategies, as well as other topics.  Students choose which lectures best suit their needs.  Lectures will be made available for all levels of experience and not targeted to just seniors.  At Iowa, we recognize the need to develop the skills and knowledge of younger students as well as the talent of varsity members.  Our curriculum has proven over time to successfully lead students through the transition from novice to varsity debate. 
• 3rd Week Option is dedicated to individual attention!  An additional set of elective lectures is offered, along with practice rounds of 10 additional critiqued debates.  Two additional topics for the upcoming year will be covered. This option is limited to 40 participants. All participants must be enrolled in a current two week division offered by Iowa. Be sure to indicate which division you are enrolling in on your application in addition to applying to participate in the 3rd Week Option. Attendance means 90% of next year's potential topics will be covered.  Take advantage of this instruction and gain a competitive edge over your competition!

Interlab Instruction

Students choose their primary lab where they will develop affirmative and negative cases plus extensions on one of the possible topics for next year's competition.  They will be partnered with an additional lab to engage in interlab instruction where they develop an advance understanding of a second topic.  Students will have critiqued practice debates on both their primary lab topic and their interlab topic.  This means students will have a broader understanding of more topics than offered at any other institute. 

In addition, students can choose a lecture series to gain knowledge and insight into at least two other topics through the formal lecture series and the elective lecture series.  As each lab's work, topic lectures, and some lesson plans are provided to each student at the end of the institute, students will go home with a greater diversity of arguments covering a wider range of topics than is offered at any other institute.  This approach will not only place the students attending Iowa ahead of their competition but will provide their squad and team mates with a handbook of evidence for more than 70% of the topics on the LD ballot. 

Iowa is the only institute that guarantees your summer work will be applicable to next year's competition.  Don't risk losing a summer of work at some other institute.  Come to Iowa where you know your tuition dollars will pay off in the end!

The Best of Iowa!

Each student will receive a full-set of arguments produced by each lab including topic lecture notes.  This will provide each student, their squad, and their coaches with a handbook of affirmative and negative cases on at least 70% of the potential topics for the upcoming season.  The value of this resource cannot be overestimated!

Learn at a world class University in world class classrooms!

The National Summer Institute in Forensics is an official University of Iowa program and students have access to all University resources as if they were attending classes at Iowa. 

All of Iowa's labs are taught in high-tech classrooms.  Students are not shuffled from one meeting space to another, nor will they find out their classroom for instruction is a lounge. 

Full checkout privileges at one of the nation's Top 25 libraries including unlimited access. Too many institutes have their time in the library restricted and participants don't have checkout privileges.  So the student has the greatest potential to grow, research at debate institute ought to not be limited and restricted.

Access to all University computer clusters, free printing, and the support of the University of Iowa means we are able to bring to bear more educational resources than any other institute in the country to the student's learning environment.  Don't settle for anything but the best.

Lectures

Iowa's lecture options has something for everyone!  You choose what lectures you want to attend, based on your experience level and interest.  Novice students may want to attend lectures on rights and general theories of morality and justice, where philosophers Mill, Kant, and Rawls will be highlighted. 

Intermediate and Varsity debaters with institute experience (both at Iowa and at other workshops) may choose between two lecture series: the advanced application of philosophies and strategies developed under the traditional model, and lectures on alternative philosophies, post-modernists and post-structuralists theories of ethics, such as Hiedegger, Lacan, Lyotard, Zizek, Agamben, Arendt, and Foucault.

Iowa also offers an elective series to students. These 90-minute seminars offer an array of topics to students that range from “Debating for the Non-debate Audience,”  “Advanced Strategies of Refutation and Extension," and “Improving Crystallization Strategies” to "Topicality the Unturnable Disadvantage."  In many cases, guest experts provide additional insights through the elective seminars.