There is much material on the web. The only thing that remains unavailable (it tends to appear and disappear) is an online TOK Guide with the course overview and assessment criteria, so keep the paper handouts and refer to them regularly.
The following are just a few of the many helpful resources: an extremely useful site maintained by Amy Scott of Coral Reef High; an online course covering some of the basics on philosophy online; a lively philosophy site with many articles and interactive games; one from Kai Arste, Atlantic College, Wales, this one from the Coral Reef Senior High School, Miami, and finally this one from St.Julians in Portugal.
Tutorial on web resources ICYouSee
We will also practice TOK presentations. Again, for assessment criteria, use the TOK Guide.
Use this Guide for TOK essay writing, by Eileen Dombrowski.
For help with essay writing, ask your A1 or A2 teacher or follow the links on the A1 or A2 pages on this site.
For assessment criteria, use these pages from the TOK Guide.
To see some samples with examiner feedback, look here.
ESSAY TITLES MAY 2011
1. Consider the extent to which knowledge issues in ethics are similar to those in at least one other area of knowledge.
2. How important are the opinions of experts in the search for knowledge?
3. “Doubt is the key to knowledge” (Persian Proverb). To what extent is this true in two areas of knowledge?
4. To what extent do we need evidence to support our beliefs in different areas of knowledge?
5. To what extent are the various areas of knowledge defined by their methodologies rather than their content?
6. “There are no absolute distinctions between what is true and what is false”. Discuss this claim.
7. How can we recognise when we have made progress in the search for knowledge? Consider two contrasting areas of knowledge.
8. “Art is a lie that brings us nearer to the truth” (Pablo Picasso). Evaluate this claim in relation to a specific art form (for example, visual arts, literature, theatre).
9. Discuss the roles of language and reason in history.
10. A model is a simplified representation of some aspect of the world. In what ways may models help or hinder the search for knowledge?
Perception Perception Introduction Visual perception
Perceptual Science at MIT Visual Cognition Lab
The Amazing Colour-changing Card Trick
Reason Rationalism Introduction Logic
The Woolly Thinkers Guide to Rhetoric
Language Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Language and Thought
Emotion Descartes’ Error Emotional Intelligence
TED TALKS has a wonderful collection of videos on all kinds of topics. There are currently 200 videos there, so I will probably never be able to see all of them, alas. Search options allow you to look per subject, speaker, most e-mailed, latest, and so on.
Some of my favourites so far:
Why people believe strange things
How juries are fooled by Statistics
Biology and Art (dance)
Redefining the Dictionary by a funny lexicographer
Belief and God (and humour)
Inside the Cell by an animation cartoonist
A journey to the centre of your mind
The beauty of data visualization
tig’s student site
tok
year one
natural science What is science? More what is science?
Who invented the scientific method?
Stupid movie physics The elements in a song
Audio interview for and against string theory
List of good science and bad science links
The double slit experiment (Dr Quantum)
Feynman Fun to Imagine series of 6 short videos
social science The scientific method
The Stanford prison experiment (sociology) video
The Milgram Experiment (sociology, ethics) video
Conformity and Obedience; Five Steps to Tyranny video (five episodes in all)
Asch and consumer behaviour (eco) video
Body Rituals among the Nacirema
Cartography—projection choices (geography)
Worldmapper (geo)
Gapminder fascinating stats on LECDs (geo, eco)
from RSA animated: Crises of Capitalism (eco)
Psychology Tests on the BBC
Milton Friedman—free market theory T.V. series (eco)
Naomi Klein Shock Doctrine Website (eco)
math The Philosophy of Mathematics
The Prisoners’ dilemma (math, ethics) Monty Hall -> Try it
The Proof— Fermat’s Last Theorem
Escher and the Droste Effect (maths, art)
The golden ratio Fractals video Power of Ten
The Prediction video Hillbilly math
ethics Ethics articles (lots of links)
Ethics and Media (Poynter online, useful links)
Play the morality game from The Philosophy Magazine
The Meatrix The Meatrix II Out Daily Bread
Peter Singer (Australian ethicist)
Ethics and Food FAO (United Nations)
What’s the right thing to do? Enter a Harvard classroom to join this excellent course on justice by Michael Sandel. It starts with the trolley problem.
The arts Art What is art? video
The Beauty Queen? lucian freud
Escher and the Droste Effect (maths, art)
Ron Mueck (links to galleries at the bottom of the page)
Tinguely (video)
MOMA (museum of modern art) and MOBA (bad art)
Miscellaneous
Students Today video
Dove commercial video
Cosmic Thinkers on the Meaning of Life : Diverse speakers ensure a good spread of claims and counterclaims (videos)
I’M ALWAYS OPEN TO RECOMMENDATIONS
areas of knowledge
year two
Library resources: loads! go and have a look. ask the librarian
ways of knowing
syllabus and assessment