Seniors pursuing their International Baccalaureate diploma held court in Westerville South High School’s media center Thursday, stationed at tables where they explored questions such as: “What role does imagination play in producing knowledge about the world?”, “What features of knowledge have an impact on its reliability?”, “To what extent is certainty attainable?”
As part of their discussion, students brought three objects that explained their connection to the question and provided real-world examples to accompany their answers. The new exhibition format for the IB Theory of Knowledge class is like a science fair on knowledge.
“They are taking a really deep, abstract question and then saying, ‘ What does this have to do with me and my world?’” said Bill Heinmiller, who coordinates the IB program. “That’s a really good snapshot of what we do in IB. We’re constantly trying to think ‘So what?’, ‘Why does it matter?’, ‘What’s the point?’ and ‘How does it affect me?’”
Thursday marked the first of three exhibitions, which has replaced the Theory of Knowledge presentations as one of the culminating activities in the class. As part of the exhibition, seniors could choose from one of 35 prescribed questions provided by IB and answer it using three objects as evidence. They must also complete a 950-word written commentary which counts towards their final IB grade.
Heinmiller and Amy Roush, who co-teaches the Theory of Knowledge class, invited IB juniors as well as freshmen and sophomores interested in the IB program to participate in the exhibitions by asking questions and engaging with the seniors during the exhibitions on Thursday and Friday. Monday’s exhibition is for parents and families.
Throughout the Theory of Knowledge two-year course, Heinmiller said students have been analyzing knowledge questions, diving into different perspectives, biases, interpretations and big ideas. With the exhibitions, the deep and thoughtful discussions embedded in class are now on display.
Kyra Lesmerises embraced the shift from a presentation to an exhibition in the Theory of Knowledge class and enjoyed the exchanges with her peers throughout her discussion.
“This has actually been really fun,” she said. “I get to choose what I’m talking about and relate it to a more philosophical question. That has been really nice because normally what we do in Theory of Knowledge is we’re given the situation to talk about and we relate it to different questions.”
Her exhibit focused on the question, “What is the relationship between personal experience and knowledge?” She talked about how positive experiences can shape knowledge and presented three items to make her case: a sweatshirt from Ocean City, New Jersey, one of her favorite vacation spots with her family; a ticket stub to Space Jam 2, a movie she enjoyed but her father did not; and her favorite book, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.”
“We all have different experiences and we all like different things because of those experiences,” she said. “It’s not just random what we like. It’s because we have a positive experience associated with it or a negative experience associated with it. It’s interesting to explore.”