Writing the 8 out of 8 SAQ response is challenging and opinions differ as to how it is best achieved. Though a standard introduction, conclusion or evaluation is not an absolute requirement the response does need to be focused.
Find below my personal list of handy hints that I share with my students:
An economic slowdown brought about by a natural disaster is tragically illustrated by the recent floods in Thailand as the nation struggles to recover and count the cost now that the waters are receding.
Most economists are slashing their forward estimates of GDP growth and see a strong possibility of an interest rate cut to help stimulate the economy.
I’ve just learned a new verb, from a source I found somewhere or other on the web. I add it with pleasure to my own vocabulary, and pass it on to you for your delectation. Now that I have a word for this activity, I ask my TOK colleagues, will I recognize it all the more when I engage in it?
The verb is “wilf”, and provides a least a mild counterbalance to expressions such as “the pursuit of knowledge” or “mankind’s eternal search for knowledge” that appear relentlessly in opening paragraphs of student essays — and that make gaining knowledge sound so inescapably energetic and purposeful! “Wilfing”, in contrast, is defined as “surfing the web without any real purpose”. It is derived, acronymically, from “What Was I Looking For?”
“the desire for the well-being of our children……has always been and will continue to be the most universally cherished aspiration of humankind.”
We the Children…. the World Summit for Children Report of the UN Secretary-General (2001)
It is, I admit, a little confusing – the process of assessment is changing in the middle of the course, (insofar as the examiner will stop interviewing and the teacher will take over this role) and the course itself is soon to end before being reborn (phoenix like) in yet another incarnation.
So it’s hardly surprising that the two issues get mixed up in some peoples’ minds.
On the OCC teachers are still asking if the examiner is really not coming to talk to their students in 2013 (“I have not seen any response to our concerns and questions. Is this change indeed happening? If so, should I be telling my current Year Ones that they will not have a VE?”)
cross-posting for all readers of Triple A blogs: For thosen regular readers of the Triple A Blog, you’ll know that 10 new laptops were recently donated to the One Laptop Per Child project. The use of the XO laptops, as they are known, has attracted the attention of a whole host of researchers from various universities around the world. Read the full story.
The Triple A Learning team met this morning to add some detail to a plan on a new service to the international teaching community. More about that later….
During the meeting, we were deliberating on how users of our site could best search items located in different parts of the world instead of using the by country search. We were interested to find this United Nations map of the world divided into sub-regions. It generated quite some discussion in the office. The UN claims that the assignment of a country to one of these sub-regions is “… for statistical convenience and does not imply any assumption regarding political or other affiliation of countries or territories by the United Nations.” However, we had a few questions…
As we treat symbolic representation in TOK, we deal most centrally with language. Yet we cannot ignore other forms of representation which communicate more (or less) effectively than language in communicating some kinds of explicit knowledge claims or more implicit beliefs and perspectives: statistics, maps, photographs and other images, artworks.
I must admit to loving the radio and take it with me wherever I am. The advent of the podcast and interactive radio means that I can catch up on programmes I have missed. Several blogs have been stimulated by a radio programme or part of a programme. The BBC is an excellent source of news, ideas and views. Over the last week, I have been listening to lunchtime broadcasts and have been fascinated by two particular series.
In the first of these, the wonderful Stephen Fry traced the evolution of the mobile phone, from hefty executive bricks that required a separate briefcase, to sleek fashion smartphone carried by billions of people around the world. This social, technological and economic history of the telephone examined the development of cellular networks, messaging and texting and traced the miniaturisation of the components that made these possible. This was achieved through five accessible 15 minute programmes, now available from the BBC website, which has a huge range of downloadable programme suitable for the classroom and offering stimulus for debate and research. You will have to hurry though, because the Stephen Fry programmes are only available until 2nd December.
So, I am guessing that around about now you will be starting to teach topic 12. Topic 12 is, I believe, one of the easier AHL topics to teach.
The tricky part is writing the full electronic configuration of atoms and ions – well, the writing part is easy, explaining why 4s fills before 3d is the tricky part.
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