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CLASS ACTIVITY—GREATEST HITS
Here, collected in one place, are the class activities that have emerged over the years as the most popular with TOK teachers around the world.
Starting TOK
Student Knowledge claims
The Map is not the Territory
The Allegory of the Cave
Justified true belief
Theories of Truth
Good and bad explanations
Figs from multiple viewpoints
What do little kids know?
Apprenticeship in ethics
Vera Drake: saint or serial killer?
You are the product
Faking it
Problem of definition: beef and cows
Induction and deduction
Informal logical fallacy
Orwellian Newspeak
Nacirema
Exorcizing cultural relativism
Draw history
The Human Sciences
Is there a scientific method?
Nature: an encounter with a real science journal
Theory of Ignorance
Ideal gas law compared to Euler’s relation
Shostakovich 8th string quartet
Smart apes
Squidgy, pinkish buttery gloop
Selection of bovine images from Problem of definition: beef and cows.
Students peruse 24 images categorizing them as “beef” or “cow,” placing them in two piles according to their designation. Next, from the “cow” images they select the most “cow-like.” The idea is that there are central, and more marginal cases of what can be acceptably designated to the cow category. Finally. they determine the single most “beef-like” or “beef-ish” of the “beef” images.
Banner photo: Detail from Homunculus (2024) Oil painting by the author.