TOK Lesson        2/21/2017

•1. Which of these claims do you regard as being scientific? Justify your answers. What are your criteria?

During the first seven days after birth, it is dangerous to expose a child to the outdoors or to strangers.

= (the immune system of the child might be very weak and could it pose serious health risks prematurely exposing it to a bacteria filled environment)

When a man and a woman both have sickle-cell anemia, it is dangerous for them to have children

= (sickle cell anemia is a recessive mutation. If both parents have it, there is 100% chance that their offspring will have the same disease. Sickle cell anemia is responsible with many circulatory system issues and can present serious health risks

Smoking cigarettes is dangerous

= (it has been proven that tobacco is a carcinogen and there is a scientifically established cause-effect relationship between cigarette use and certain types of cancer. All components in cigarettes are known to be toxic )

A live, non-insulated electric wire is dangerous to touch.

= (based upon our knowledge on how electricity behaves, it is well known that electrons take the path of least resistance and will flow through the human body into the ground because of its water based composition. Depending on the current, the water in the body heats up and expands, leading to ruptures which can be fatal)

Driving after drinking alcohol is dangerous.

= (alcohol is absorbed in the bloodstream and affects certain areas in the brain. This decreases awareness and reduces threat correspondence which could lead to road accidents when driving)

•2. Suggest how each of them could have come into existence. What sort of thinking processes might have been involved?

Each of them probably came into existence based off of experiences and observations. The scientific ones just underwent rigorous testing and analyses while the non-scientific ones where largely created due to generalizations or other forms of irrational conclusions.

•3. Is it possible to construct very different, but equally believable routes by which these claims could have come into existence? Compare different claims

The scientific method is critically acclaimed and thought in all credible education systems for a reason. This is because it provides the most credible results which can be analyzed and used for further knowledge. Other routes may also be believable but cannot provide the same standard form with any experiment can be tested against.

•4. If science and taboos are both laws, then how, if at all, do these types of laws differ?

Only scientifically viable laws can withstand the scrutiny of the scientific method. Therefore, they are more credible and can be used as anchor points of society to improve and develop. Laws that have not been proven beneficial simply serve as an obstacle to human development and the greater good.

                                         TOK Lesson                2/16/2017

For this TOK lesson, the class was shown a Ted-ed video about the scientific method. In the video, we were presented with the functionality and capabilities of the human brain, even before we used technology to aid our scientific endeavors. It explains how the earliest scientists became pioneers in their fields because of their curiosity and application of knowledge. The example it gives is the father of geography: Aristotle. It shows how he used basic mathematics and the catalysis act of staring into a well, as a way of measuring large geographical distances.

The video keeps mentioning multiple incredible and groundbreaking feats of human thinking and providing the dates in which they were done to prove that people are fully capable of discovering new things and benefiting society. It also talks about the scientific method, and how we can reach greater levels of analysis by looking at each other's work and co-coordinating our efforts in the pursuit of knowledge. The ultimate point of the video is to show that by expanding awareness or adapting different perspectives, we can discover and explain new things for the betterment of the world.

                            TOK Lesson                   2/7/2017

Cholera Article

The article discussing the Cholera outbreak states that the disease could be airborne, implying that something in the air is making all the people fall ill. John Snow's hypothesis was that the cause of Cholera originated within the water pumps that the local residents were drawing from.

Evidence to support this includes residents who were actively withdrawing water from the well were falling ill, when the well was closed down Cholera cases began to drop and the causation evidence which is that human sewage was leaking into the waterway and is a proven cause of Cholera.

An experiment to back up John Snow's claims could be running chemical tests on the water or using animal test subjects to see if they would fall ill.




Natural sciences:

Natural sciences are a branch of science which deals with the physical world (chemistry, biology, physics, etc.) Natural sciences gain knowledge of the world through theories which are supported by evidence. Theories are proven or disproved through the scientific method which is a rigorous testing heme that ensures accurate results. Previous knowledge can be used to explain or find connections to the processes occurring in new investigations. They act as a form of template which makes it easier to construct further knowledge upon.

A specific experiment I can recall in science is the discovery of gravity. The researcher rigorously tested his theory to find out all the intrinsic parts which make up the phenomenon he described as gravity. These results were published and serve as a basis for modern education in physics.

                             ToK Presentation Reflection                2/2/2017

For this semester's Theory of Knowledge presentation, my partner and I have decided to discuss the topic of video games and how their influences can correlate with violent behavior. We focused on the 2 ways of knowing (Emotion and Reason) and the are of knowing (Human sciences).

For my part of the presentation, I presented a counter claim that stated that video games do not influence behavior that leads to homicidal violence. I argued the case that the perpetrator of the Sandy Hook was more affected by mental illness and predispositions to violence, rather than the sole responsibility of video games was the cause for his violent behavior. I also presented other facts and reasons that went against or offered alternatives for video games being the cause of violent behavior, including statistics and psychological case studies. At the end of the presentation, my partner and I agreed that video games are just a minor factor that ties in with many other influences and reasons.

What I believe I did well for this presentation is the presentation of hard evidence. I referred back to the real life application, provided other supporting statistics, utilized counter actin case studies and offered alternative lines of reason. I spoke loud and clearly, and matched my speaking time to that of my partner. I believe that our presentation was well structured, paced and offered a two sided argument with an open ended conclusion as well as debating our knowledge question. Areas for improvement include looking up more at the audience and spending less time reading from a script. Additionally, more reference should have been made to the ways of knowing and the area of knowing as a key component of the knowledge question. All in all, I feel that we discussed a relative topic effectively and delivered a generally respectable presentation.