Tag Archives: ToK

10/25/14

IB Biology Seminar

For the Oct.24th professional development day, as well as today, those of us in the IB cohort attended workshops hosted by experienced IB educators in our specific subject areas.

Those of us in biology attended a workshop led by Catherine Daniel, a biology teacher from Stratford Hall. During the two day-session, we covered many different areas of the IB biology curriculum, as well as different resources that we can use for teaching. It was a productive two days, and I learned a lot about how the IB programme is structured and how it has and continues to evolve.

The following are some notes that I took during the session, and some photos of what we worked on.

  • IBEN = IB educator network
    • Available to educators after working for 2 years
    • evaluate programs for different schools
    • work in curriculum development
    • working towards improving the entire program / teacher support
  • Question bank = collection of old papers & questions
    • set up by topics à choose to use on own exams
    • different types of questions available
    • mark schemes/answers given for questions
  • Mark Distribution
    • IA = 20% (usually in 2nd year)
    • 3 papers = 80% (distribution dependent on SL or HL)
      • paper 1 = multiple choice
      • paper 2 = data analysis and long answer
      • paper 3 = option
  • Internal Assessment
    • rubrics for marking just updated
    • let students know that for collecting sufficient relevant data, they need 5×5 in order to use trend lines or calculate standard deviation
    • if students are doing a bar graph, they need 2×10 in order to perform a t-test and get a p-value
    • do not mark higher than a student should be getting (moderators will mark them down and the students will be harmed in the end)
  • Teaching Hours
    • have to allocate limited hours to specific areas (i.e. try to spend time on ‘practical scheme of work’)
    • flexibility with order of teaching material
    • possibility to have students pick their own option for self-study
      • although some students really need that guidance for material
    • an option is to do the SL and HL topics together to save time
    • important to check in with students about their stress levels and time management
  • PSOW (practical scheme of work) à method of keeping track of the lab work that students are doing
    • D = design
    • DCP = data collection and processing
    • CE = conclusion and evaluation
    • 7 mandatory prescribed practicals that students will have to cover
      • students develop method that will allow them to meet these practicals
      • can have students focus on one aspect of a lab report that covers the prescribed practical (finishing an entire lab may take too much time)
    • recording
      • what was done (title and brief introduction), date and how long it took
      •  “handbook of procedures for the Diplomma Programme” gives information about everything the teacher needs to do for PSOW
  • how to prepare students for writing papers
    • mock exams
    • teaching students how to read the questions properly
    • process of elimination
      • some answers are just worded differently

 

  • school-specific issues
    • what equipment and resources are available at the school? (will they help with meeting the lab requirements?)
    • discussions about controversial topics (e.g. evolution)
      • use questioning; bring in resources such as articles

Photo 2014-10-25, 2 50 38 PM Photo 2014-10-25, 2 50 57 PM Photo 2014-10-25, 2 51 23 PM Photo 2014-10-25, 2 51 28 PM  Photo 2014-10-25, 2 51 37 PM Photo 2014-10-25, 2 50 35 PM

Photo 2014-10-25, 2 52 02 PM Photo 2014-10-25, 2 52 06 PM

 

 

08/28/14

Theory of Knowledge

Today, it almost felt like time had repeated itself, and I found myself in my old ToK class again. It was the heated debates and the feelings of frustration as we tried to make a certain points all over again.

When I initially applied for the IB cohort, the thought of applying ToK to anything again had never even crossed my mind. I have to admit that although the discussions my ToK class had back in high school were sometimes fun, I never really enjoyed the class very much. I don’t think I ever got any answers out of those experiences, just more questions.

However, this new experience may be different; I’ve learned more and experienced more since I was in the IBDP programmed. Something I learned back in ToK was that the more a person learns, the more they realize that there is to learn. I’ve expanded my horizons a bit, and I’m ready to learn more!

Another thing I’ve realized is just how quickly this program is going, and just how intense the workload is going to be. We haven’t even officially started the school year yet, and we already have our first ‘lesson plan’ date set! I can already feel the anxiety and anticipating starting to build. I’ll really need to focus on time management and remain determined for this next year!

08/27/14

The Rennie Collection & “What Is Art?”

  1. I have always been focused on the sciences, and am not much of an artist. I think that art is something that is created for some purpose, such as displaying beauty or sharing a certain idea or message.
  2. Based on what I described ‘art’ as in the previous question, I do believe that if an artists calls a piece of work ‘art’, it would be considered art. However, there would be limitations to this situation. For example, based on my description of what art is, there should be some sort of meaning behind the piece of artwork. The artist would be able to explain the significance of the piece in some sort of way. In contrast, a person can take a piece of trash and call it art, but only if there is some significance behind this action that turns the piece of trash into a meaningful piece of art.
  3. One piece of the Rodney Graham exhibit that I really enjoyed was “Introductory Lectures”, the red piece that was in the first room of the exhibit. The bright red of the shelf was very eye-catching in the bare room, and aesthetically pleasing because of the mathematical dimensions of the different sections. The subtle comedy of the ‘Freudian Slip’ was also very witty. Although I didn’t really understand the purpose of the piece at first, after listening to Alexandra speak about Graham and his background I was able to understand the significance of the piece.One piece that I did not understand completely, even after listening to an explanation, was the performance piece at the very end of the gallery, “Throwing Potatoes at a Gong”. I could understand how Graham attempted to insert himself and his art into the 1970s by using mediums that made his artwork appear like they were from that time period, but I just could not understand the significance of throwing potatoes at the gong. Was he simply just trying to juxtapose the absurdity of the act and the serenity that is usually associated with the sound of a gong?