MOVED TOK 1, Day 38 (12/2): Intro to the Extended Essay

Agenda:

TOKsgiving?

Extended Essay

• Extended Essay Overview
• An Introduction to the Research Process
• Brewer's Research Process: A Case Study
• The "So What?": Creating statements of purpose (adapted from Booth et. al., The Craft of Research, Chapter 3)
• Step one: Name your topic
• I am studying _______
• I am looking into _____
• I am focusing on _______
• Step 2: Add an indirect question
• because I want to find out who/what/when/where/whether/how/why ______
• Step 3: Answer "So What?" by motivating your question
• in order to help my readers understand how/why/whether ______.

Homework:

EE: by 12/18

• Begin reading for your EE.  Use the Resources on the EE Guide website to take your research BEYOND Google.
• Take good notes (including bibliographic information)
• Have at least 5 sources that you feel are valuable (You may have already read them, or be in the process of working through them).
• Work toward a Statement of Purpose (See above) that you are proud of. Be ready to share these also in class.

Upcoming:

• 12/4: Intro to Maths as an AOK
• 12/6: Math - Invented or Discovered? 
• 12/10: Fractals
• 12/12: CAS (presentations for select students)
• 12/16: Bayesian Reasoning (From The Signal and the Noise)
• 12/18: Return to EE
• 12/20: Midterm - Intercultural Feast

MOVED TOK 2, Day 26 (10/22): Revising the Curriculum

Aims & Objectives

1. develop an awareness of how individuals and communities construct knowledge and how this is critically examined
2. develop an interest in the diversity and richness of cultural perspectives and an awareness of personal and ideological assumptions
3. examine how academic disciplines/areas of knowledge generate and shape knowledge

Essential Questions:

1. How do historians construct knowledge? 
2. How do we decide what counts as history?

Agenda (Google Slides):

• Revising the Curriculum Activity & Discussion

Homework:

• Bring back UWG Permission form if you have not already done so
• Find a promising TOK Presentation RLS and use it to extract a knowledge question

MOVED TOK 2, Day 24 (10/16): Intro to History

Aims & Objectives

• make connections between a critical approach to the construction of knowledge, the academic disciplines and the wider world
• examine how academic disciplines/areas of knowledge generate and shape knowledge
• understand the roles played by ways of knowing in the construction of shared and personal knowledge

Central Knowledge Questions

1. How do historians construct knowledge of the past?
2. What role do culturally consecrated icons, images, and symbols play in our thinking about history?

Agenda

• Intro to History as an AOK
• Draw History

Homework & Upcoming

MOVED TOK 2, Day 69 (3/13): The Long Now

The Clock of the Long Now, designed by Daniel Hillis and the Long Now Foundation, is a clock designed to run accurately without interruption and maintenance for 10,000 years.

Consider:
The half-life of enriched uranium (Uranium-235) is 704 million years. That of depleted uranium (Uranium-238) is 4.5 billion years. All of the nuclear waste that has ever been created by humans--that continues to be created at a rate of over 3,000 tons per year in the US alone--will continue to exist and be deadly for longer than the life of the sun.

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (above) is a storage facility in southeastern New Mexico designed to "safely" store nuclear waste.  This site is only for "so called low- and midlevel waste,"  but its contents, many thousands of tons of contaminated clothing, building materials, and equipment, are and will remain poisonous beyond any future we can image (Weisman).

The longest continuously-existing civilization, at upwards of 3,500 years, is that of China. Suffice to say that the poison filling the ground will likely outlast any remnant of the civilization that put it there. According to its federal mandate, the operational performance period for the WIPP is 10,000 years.

10,000 Years Activity

After we complete the activity, we can listen to this 99% Invisible episode, which tells the true story of solving this problem.

TOK 2, Day 55 (1/31): TOK Essay Workshop

Agenda:

• TOK Essay Workshop (Last Workshop Day)
• TOK Essay 1-on-1 conferences

Homework:

• TKPPF
• Reflect in writing on your 1-on-1 conference  
• Record your reflection in "Second Interaction" in the TKPPF form (On Google Classroom) Don't turn this in yet.

Upcoming Deadlines:

Core Stuff:

2/4 - TOK Essay Commentary Draft

2/8 - EE Viva Voce Complete

2/15 - TOK Essay Final Draft

2/19 - Ethics & RKS One Page Papers DUE
2/21 - CAS Finalized

Other Stuff:

1/30 - History IA Final

1/31 - Literature IOCs

2/1 - Anthro IA Fieldwork

2/8 - Spanish Written Assessment

3/8 - Music MLI

3/25 - Visual Arts Exhibitions Complete