The 2020 Student Debates of the Entomological Society of America (ESA) were live-streamed during the Virtual Annual Meeting to debate current, prominent entomological issues of interest to members. The Student Debates Subcommittee of the National ESA Student Affairs Committee coordinated the student efforts throughout the year and hosted the live event. This year, four unbiased introductory speakers provided background for each debate topic while four multi-university teams were each assigned a debate topic under the theme ‘Technological Advances to Address Current Issues in Entomology’. The two debate topics selected were as follows: 1) What is the best taxonomic approach to identify and classify insects? and 2) What is the best current technology to address the locust swarms worldwide? Unbiased introduction speakers and debate teams began preparing approximately six months before the live event. During the live event, teams shared their critical thinking and practiced communication skills by defending their positions on either taxonomical identification and classification of insects or managing the damaging outbreaks of locusts in crops.

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解决昆虫学当前问题的技术进步：2020 年学生辩论

美国昆虫学会 (ESA) 2020 年学生辩论在虚拟年会上进行了直播，就会员感兴趣的当前突出昆虫学问题进行辩论。全国ESA学生事务委员会的学生辩论小组委员会协调了全年学生的努力并主办了现场活动。今年，四位公正的介绍性演讲者为每个辩论主题提供了背景，而四个多大学团队各自分配了一个主题为“解决昆虫学当前问题的技术进步”的辩论主题。选定的两个辩论主题如下： 1）识别和分类昆虫的最佳分类方法是什么？2) 目前解决全球蝗灾的最佳技术是什么？公正的介绍演讲者和辩论团队在现场活动前大约六个月开始准备。在现场活动期间，团队通过捍卫自己在昆虫分类学识别和分类或管理作物中破坏性蝗虫爆发方面的立场，分享了他们的批判性思维并练习了沟通技巧。