There was a festive atmosphere in the QAHS Green Heart last week, when the Year 11 cohort held the second Annual TOK Exhibition. While we continue to celebrate 'thinking' for TOKtober – four weeks of Information, Imagination, Inspiration and Innovation - the Year 11 students have presented their TOK Exhibition in a physical and virtual format to the school community. The exhibition requires students to demonstrate how Theory of Knowledge manifests in the real world. In realising this, students find tangible objects to display links to knowledge concepts such as objectivity, interpretation, and culture.
On Tuesday, week 2 – Imagination Week, students proudly displayed objects as diverse as a traditional copper drinking vessel, a wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, and a well-thumbed Dungeon Master's Guide (complete with page markers), and shared their ideas directly to their peers, and via an online platform. The Year 10 cohort and QAHS staff were treated to the students' personal explanations for their choice of objects, and the complex links they made to how knowledge works. Congratulations, Year 11 on an accomplished and insightful display of how knowledge works in the world around us.
Then, on Wednesday, week 3 – Inspiration Week, students and staff dressed up as TOK Thinkers who inspired and “Mary Midgley", “Mary Shelley", “Mr Daven Naiker", and “Sir David Attenborough" turned up. There was even an “Elle Woods" and a huge and well-co-ordinated contingent of “Men-In-Black". Rounding out the week of Inspiration will be a special viewing of Neri Oxman's NATURE X HUMANITY, before the excursions, guest speakers and a new format of public-speaking fun of Innovation week, TOKtober week 4.
As always, we look forward to seeing where our QAHS students take their brilliant TOK thinking, next.
Julie Bertwistle
TOK Coordinator, Psychology teacher, English teacher