Entomology beyond research and education: 2022 student debates

Abstract

The 2022 student debates of the Entomological Society of America (ESA) happened during the Joint Annual Meeting of the Entomological Societies of America, Canada, and British Columbia in Vancouver, BC, and addressed entomological aspects beyond research and education. The Student Debates Subcommittee of the ESA Student Affairs Committee and the participating student team members communicated for 8 months and prepared for the debates. The theme of the ESA meeting in 2022 was “Entomology as inspiration: Insects through art, science, and culture”. There were 2 unbiased speakers who introduced the debate topics as well as 4 teams who debated the following 2 topics: (i) Is forensic entomology viable in criminal case investigations and court cases today? and (ii) Are insects being treated ethically in scientific research? The teams prepared for about 8 months, debated their arguments, and shared their thoughts with the audience. The teams were judged by a panel and the winners were recognized at the ESA Student Awards Session during the annual meeting.

Pain and Suffering in Farmed Animals: First Steps Towards Better Understanding and Management (Musk and Clutton, 2024) - Insects

“…However, more recently many scientists have broken with the traditional view that insects cannot feel pain and expressed more significant uncertainty about insect pain and/or potentially morally-relevant consciousness (Barron and Klein 2016; Klein and Barron 2016;Elwood 2016;de Mori and Normando 2019;Gibbons and Sarlak 2020;Chittka 2022;Gibbons et al 2022a;Buchmann 2023;Klobučar and Fisher 2023;Crump et al 2023). Students of the Entomological Society of America chose and debated the question of if insects are treated ethically in research at the international joint annual meeting with the Canadian entomological societies in 2022 -and the team that argued insects are not treated ethically in research won (Sandhi et al 2023).…”