Students of the IB programme should know what TOK entails.
Theory of Knowledge (TOK) allows students of the IB Diploma programme an opportunity to explore and reflect on the nature of knowledge and how we know what we know. TOK teaches students to be comfortable with the tensions, limitations, and challenges of how we know what we currently know and encourages them to appreciate the richness of knowledge. Thinking about how we know what we know is beneficial for us – different kinds of knowledge is valuable to us as we can be more aware of the assumptions that we make.
Students will need to be familiar with the various Areas of Knowledge:
Areas of Knowledge in Theory of Knowledge IB
a. History
Students will explore how they can talk meaningfully about a historical fact or with any certainty about anything which happened in the past. Evidence is history is documented in many different ways – students need to think about how reliable this evidence is especially when they are incomplete or there are contradictions. Furthermore, students need to think about how historians are influenced by their history and social environment.
b. Human Sciences
The human sciences include psychology, social, and cultural anthropology, economics, political science, and geography. These subjects study human existence and behaviour. Students will need to assess how the methodologies and ways of experimenting in the human sciences square up to the natural sciences. How can these methods be objective?
c. Natural Sciences
The natural sciences rely on evidence, rationality, and the quest for deeper understanding. They need to think about how scientific methodologies generate evidence which is highly reliable as compared to other branches of disciplines? Students should consider how scientific knowledge develops and how it leads to breakthroughs in societies and communities.
d. Mathematics
The subject of Mathematics is peculiar in that it has a degree of certainty which is unmatched by other areas of knowledge. Mathematics is founded on universally accepted definitions and assumptions and as such, it is the bedrock of many other subjects, especially the Sciences. Students will consider how Mathematics relate to the world and what goes into proving concepts in Mathematics. However, there is also a role that elegance plays in Math.
e. Arts
The arts includes visual arts, theatre, dance, music, film, and literature. Students need to consider how art is interpreted and what meaning is ascribed to a work of art. The student will need to consider the artist’s intentions and the role of the audience. Many fundamental questions are explored in the study of the Arts, such as how art sheds light on the human condition and acts as a vehicle for social criticism and change in society.
When students do their TOK essay, they will need to make use of these concepts and more. Students need to find relevant examples from these Areas of Knowing and reference the Ways of Knowing (emotion, faith, imagination, intuition, language, memory, reason, and sense perception) in their essay for it to score well. Their essays should also have a logical flow and a clear division of arguments and counter-arguments for it to score a good grade.
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As the name suggests, the IB Chemistry Clinic does not only fix a student’s grades - it helps students with critical components of the IB Programme, namely the Internal Assessment (IA) which is worth at least 20% of a student’s grade and their Extended Essay (EE) in Chemistry.
The IA and EE are a non-negotiable part of the Chemistry curriculum - without them, students will not be able to graduate with an IB Diploma. However, there are many difficulties associated with conducting experiments for the IA and EE - many replications are required and the standard for the final deliverable - the research report - is high. Students need to undertake statistical testing and present their final results coherently and concisely.
Although the IB school provides mentors for the EE and teachers at school can guide students through their IA, attention to each student is often limited in a classroom setting and many students are left to figure things out by themselves. This results in difficulty completing internal deadlines on time, especially when a student needs to juggle all their 6 subjects and the additional components of the IB, along with their CCAs and other commitments.
The IB Chemistry Clinic is here to answer all your questions - whether it is about content knowledge or fixing errors in your experimental setup as you undertake your IA journey, our skilled tutors with a strong background in Chemistry research and 30 years of experience teaching Chemistry are here to help!
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Frequently Asked Questions
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With time and effort, students who know the syllabus well and are well-prepared and have well-written assignments will easily get a 7 in the IB.
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