TEMPLE, Texas — Students in Temple High School’s International Baccalaureate Programme’s Theory of Knowledge Class showcased their capstone projects to the public during a community exhibition Tuesday evening (April 29).
The exhibition featured 21 students from the junior level Theory of Knowledge class presenting their projects to community members, parents, and district staff. The students were required to pick an open-ended topic from a list of 35 choices exploring how knowledge is constructed, evaluated, and shared across disciplines and cultures. Each student then selected three real world objects to connect to that theme and illustrate their findings. Topics ranged from “Who Owns Knowledge?” to “In What way Do Values Affect The Production of Knowledge?” to “Why Do We Seek Knowledge?” The Theory of Knowledge class is one of the cornerstones of the IB Programme and the presentations highlighted the research, critical thinking, and reflective learning students invested into their projects.
Isabel Moerbe’s exhibition focused on the question “Who Owns Knowledge?” while Malachi Mejias focused on the question of “How Is Personal Experience Related to Knowledge?” Both students say they not only learned a great deal about the subject matter, but also learned something about themselves by having to think in a different way about very challenging topics.
“I learned that knowledge is obviously a very broad topic and I think that are so many different kinds of ownership -- legal, physical, and personal,” Moerbe said “This project has made me look at knowledge with a new perspective, because I had to find three answers to a very broad questions, and it helped me find three definitions for that through the process.”
“I have learned a lot about how our upbringing can impact our knowledge,” added Mejias. “I was really excited to share all of the cool work that I have done, mainly the research, because I had to find some political examples of how people’s personal experience impacted their knowledge.”
Laura Betik teaches the Theory of Knowledge class and has been working with the students for more than a month on their projects. She is extremely grateful for the community’s support of the IB Programme and the way the courses force students to think outside the box. Betik sees the community showcase as an opportunity to not only highlight the growth of the students participating through the year, but also to help the public gain a better understanding of the rigor and innovation involved in the IB programme.
“This is more or less a philosophy course, so it is very uncomfortable for them at the beginning. Everything is very open ended, and it requires them to examine themselves and how they learn in ways they haven’t considered before,” Betik said. “Then they start to slowly think of real-world examples and this very abstract thing becomes very real and very personal to them. There is a lot of ownership by the end of this project, and it is fun to see them have a chance to show that off to the public. It is always fun to hear the parents and the community members reflections once they have had a chance to hear from the kids.”