Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Feeling Overextended?
Welcome to summer, Knowers. To ease into our intellectual explorcation, please begin with what you're already doing: share your EE research question; extract a knowledge question, couched in explicitly TOK language; apply and answer the question in a context other than your EE. As will be the case all summer, your post is due by the local end of Sunday.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
EE Question: Is Crassostrea gasar a viable tactic of remediation in Barbados’ Read's Bay?
ReplyDeleteKQ: How can emotional connections lead to unjustified certainty in one's capabilities in natural sciences?
I have grown up exploring the natural world, by my mother's side. I have grown up seeing her and all her successes and brilliance within her field. Due to this, I have been confident in my own abilities as a mini scientist, and due to that, I chose to write my extended essay on an undeveloped field of science. Essentially, my knowledge of my close likeness to my mother lead me to be overly confident in my abilities. As I am finding out, this budding and innovative idea, of using oysters as a redemption tactic, lies in a field with very very little information/ studies surrounding it. Had I not been the daughter of such a great scientist, I would have never thought this was possible for me to achieve.
EE Question: How has Madonna been able to stay relevant and maintain a successful career over the past three decades?
ReplyDeleteKQ: To what extent do the arts rely on memory to justify the general knowledge that something is good, rather than using sense perception?
When most people think of how we come to the conclusion of what makes an art presentation good or bad, being a visual art or preforming art, one would assume that the judgement on weather it is good or bad relies on the visual and auditory experiences of the critic. But in some instances, this is not the case. Sometimes, memories of who the artist is override the visual and auditory experience that a critic has. For example, Lindsey Lohan. Because she is in many people's memories as the child star who fell, and fell hard, from grace, when she attempts to get back on track critical reception is not positive. For example, in the movie Liz and Dick which came out in 2012, the critical reception of Lindsey Lohan as Elizabeth Taylor was not positive. She could have given an astounding performance, but due to the memory of who she is, it was most likely harder for critics to judge her solely on her visual and auditory performance as an actress. I think that the extent that memory affects sensory and auditory reactions to the arts depends on every situation though. Sometimes artists, weather painters, singers, or actors, are able to overcome a bad reputation and be appreciated for just their art. Sometimes, the memories that everyone has stops them from ever reaching the positive fame they once held. I believe though, that memory always plays a role, due to the fact that it is very difficult to subjectively critique someones art without thinking of what you have heard of or seen about them in the past.
EE Question: how did the cotton gin help to prop up the socioeconomic state of the Antebellum South and increase tensions leading up to the Civil War?
ReplyDeleteKQ: to what extent does memory affect a knower's ability to research and understand historical events?
Historians, as human beings, are inherently biased. These biases come from our constant processing of information which comes from other biased sources. When we consider historical events, we apply our own prior knowledge of and opinion about those events to our analysis of them. An example of this comes from the Arab-Israeli conflict. Many Israeli historians after 1980 began to question the narrative provided by earlier historical texts; they began to write more nuanced criticisms and analyses of Israel's politics. These historians, being generally proud of Israel, had a tendency to be biased towards it; however, their memories of events such as the 1973 War and the damage it caused to Israel affected these underlying biases and allowed Israeli Revisionist historians to write more balanced criticisms of Israel. Hence, memory does, to a large extent, affect the research work of historians/
EE Question: How do the style, color schemes, and decorative motif of traditional Chinese clothing and decorative arts effect on the Western high fashion in 20 century to present?
ReplyDeleteKQ: To what extend can Art effect other's emotion based on different situations?
Normally the understanding of Chinese culture in many foreigners' perspective is very traditional and mythical. Many Chinese art work use dragons, pagoda, and mountains. All these objects became the main themes of the the Chinese art works. So when they are spread into worldly wise, many foreigners who see the Chinese art works and then have an image of China. Therefore, Chinese culture are spread effectively by the it art, and effected the emotion of the foreigners when they think about China. Now, it is very interesting when the designers put their own interpretation of how they view China into their work. Still using the element of traditional Chinese art, but created a Western fashionable sense which is very different than the original art itself. Therefore, it is very interesting to explore the effc of art applied in different situation. When the art is applied into a very different place where it's not normally applied, people have another emotion even they face the same elements of art.
EE Question: How does Albert Camus use the themes of dying and death to develop the character of Meursault in his novel The Stranger?
ReplyDeleteKQ: What is the effect of language on one's perception of something that he or she cannot physically see or experience?
These last couple of weeks I have been looking at colleges and barns in the southern half of the country. Since for the most part I do not know anyone who has attended the colleges and even less who know the barns, I am forced to rely completely on descriptions I can find online. So far I have found that some of the barns which I thought I would really like based on their descriptions are not barns I like very much at all. One which I was very excited to see I am no longer considering. Another which I did not like as much based on its description has turned out to be my favorite so far. The difference I think was that the barn I am no longer considering is in the care of a trainer who did BHS in England, which is a program that I am currently doing and one which I would like to continue in college. However, I found that her barn did not support the kind of riding I want to do and she apparently only got as far as the exam I took about a month ago. The barn that has been my favorite did not have many flashy descriptions on its website but the barn turned out to be a beautiful barn with a very good trainer according to the barn manager and some students we were able to talk with (we did not actually get to meet her as she was on vacation). Yet the language on the websites that I read before ever going to see these barns affected the attitude with which I approached them. I was much more excite to see the one with the BHS trainer rather than the other.
EE Question: How did the use of Agent Orange in rural areas affect the urbanization in Vietnam from 1955 to 1975?
ReplyDeleteKQ: How do various sources with different perspectives affect people’s emotional feelings about one historical event?
Although historical event is always objectively understood by most people, there is still possibly a bias among different interpretations. For example, when people read books about the benefits of America’s engagement in the Vietnam war, they would likely to accept this event and even the fact that the war served goodness for the nation. However, when they read sources from an American soldier’s perspective about the disadvantages of the war such as nostalgia, people would more likely to be sympathetic and outraged. While collecting sources for my EE, I have skimmed several novels and autobiographies written by soldiers about their sufferings during the war. Similarly, I consider the war morally cruel. I think that those differences are one of the causes that the Vietnam war is interpreted as an controversial engagement.
What was the role of African-American vernacular dances and rhythms of the early twentieth century in the development and popularization of swing dance?
ReplyDeleteKQ: How does our prior sense-perception affect the way we appreciate new knowledge?
In my experience, the memories I have of past physical sensations, (as well as the emotional responses attached to them) gave me better insight into the new information that was presented to me, thus I was able to make more reliable judgement calls and proceed with caution. Two years ago, I sprained my left ankle, and I distinctly remember feeling a sharp twanging pain followed by a dull ache. At the time, I didn't know right away that I had sprained my ankle, so I continued to use my foot, which as you can imagine led to sharp health repercussions and sadness linked to being unable to dance for a prolonged period. About a week ago, I injured my right ankle, and because I had the memories of a similar sensation on my left foot, I could assess the situation immediately and I knew that I had sprained my right ankle. Since my unfortunate timing put my most recent sprain within two weeks of a dance summer intensive, I knew that there was a possibility of not attending. Given my past sadness stemming from being unable to dance, I altered my behavior to focus on remaining optimistic, and to do everything in my power to protect my foot. Thus I am able to respond and react in a more calculated fashion because my memories of past-sense perception enables me to understand what eases the pain and what I aids my total physical and psychological recovery.
EE question: In what ways are the metatheatrical elements of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Pippin similar, and how does that similarity lead to a consistent audience response despite the disparity of the two genres?
ReplyDeleteKQ: In what ways can artistic works cause emotional reactions that are similar in everyone who is exposed to them?
This question actually brings me back to the very first group presentation I did with Sophie and Katlyn, where we talked about music being a universal language. (Now it feels weird to be talking about practically the same thing again, but this is how my thought process went). However, rather than music, this makes me think of dance. A dance is made up of so many components, the most obvious being the music and the choreography itself. Dances tell stories, and although there is not always spoken dialogue or a description to go along with them, it is fairly easy to figure out the story. After the end of year dance concert, I was talking to a friend about one of the dances, and we managed to come up with the same story that went with it, as well as have the same emotional reaction. This goes back to the idea that art is created for a purpose, and the message behind it can be conveyed without needing to be spelled out.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteEE Question: Through investigating the major themes, plot structure, and characterization within The Shining by Stephen King and Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane, how are the horror and psychological thriller genres connected in instilling fear within the reader?
ReplyDeleteExtracted KQ: How can our understanding of the arts through emotion cause us to question the reliability of reason?
Last summer I was home alone and received a call. Before I picked up the phone I realized that the caller ID stated MY home phone number. Once I picked up, all I could hear was a muffled voice on the other end and a lot of wind. After saying 'hello' a few times and receiving no audible response from the other end of the line, I hung up, skyped one of my friends, and told her about what had just happened. Both her and I talked about the possible reasoning behind the strange call and it's origin, saying that it could have just been a cross or trip in the phone lines, but I was reminded of movies that I had seen such as Scream and The Ring in which ominous phone calls were involved. Although the skype call with my friend reassured me, I was on edge for the rest of the day. Within this situation my reasoning led me to believe that the phone call I had received was just a phone line malfunction. However, by connecting the call I had just received to similar calls within horror movies, I unconsciously applied the emotion that I had felt watching those movies, fear, to my current situation. By not fully understanding the reasoning behind the call, the lack of knowledge that I noticed within my reasoning fueled the fear that I had for the unexplained call, thus causing me to rely on my emotions which I understood more.
EE Question: How did Japanese animation transform from the war years of the Second World War to the post war period?
ReplyDeleteKQ: In what ways can an emotional event alter one's understanding of the world around them?
When I lived in Virginia, I had a close friend who was always pretty happy and cheerful, but in seventh grade, his parents decided to go through a divorce. This was an extremely emotional event for him and he was distressed almost every day since he found out and especially after the divorce. He would not smile or laugh as much as he used to before. Before, he had believed that his parents were sort of soul mates and he always looked up to them. However, after they divorced, he told me that he did not believe in love anymore. In this case, one emotional even drastically changed his understanding of the world around him. He had a more negative outlook on life and stopped believing that love existed. The ways of knowing present in this situation were emotion, reason, and faith. The emotions present in the event of both him and his parents caused his shift of perspective on the world. His parents divorce also made him reason that love did not exist and because of that, his faith in love and connections shifted.
EE Question: Is Agatha Christie's portrayal of female characters in And Then There Were None a feminist statement?
ReplyDeleteExtracted KQ: Do one's ethical stances necessarily depend on the time period in which one forms them?
I would classify my paternal grandfather as a relatively balanced, respectful, loving, and liberal individual. He is a retired Lutheran minister whose work with the Church has been primarily centered around the mission of love in the world. However, because he grew up in an era where homosexuality was not only condemned but criminalized and persecuted, he has a huge issue with the idea of gay marriage. Given the fact that he wants to understand it and is so willing to embrace other controversial topics, I feel led to believe that this particular anti-gay stance is purely a result of the time period in which he was raised.
EE Research Question(s): how is the duration and percentage of germination of vegetable seeds affected by the presence of black walnut (BW) leaves? Will the age of BW trees modify the effect of BW leaves on vegetable seed germination?
ReplyDeleteKnowledge Question: In what ways can language in the natural sciences be a barrier or a pathway to discovering new knowledge?
Science is holistically used as a way to explain observations in the natural world. In the natural sciences, the definition of certainty causes problems with sparking, developing or establishing profound scientific theories. What I mean by certainty in the context of this response is, the assurance of accurate information through language. Language plays in important role in the natural sciences as it is used to strictly convey the meanings behind facts, hypotheses, laws and theories. There is no doubt words exist with liability in the sense that they can be understood and interpreted differently, in this case by certain scientists. For example, labeling beakers, variables, or subjects during the preparation of an experiment is extremely important to ensure an accurate collection of data. In a chemistry class two years ago, a member of my group during an experiment mixed up the labels on two metals we were using to conduct an experiment. This led to misunderstandings with our results. In this case, language acted as a barrier because it hindered the group’s ability to record the data accurately and therefore be unable to gain accurate new knowledge.
Sorry I had to report. I misread the instructions.
ReplyDeleteEE Question: How did American comic books support the U.S. war effort in World War II ?
KQ: How can knowledge based on emotion presented in the arts affect opinions based on reason?
Sometimes knowledge is better conveyed through art than words or others like it. Visual and performing arts can affect a broader range of knowers than other media. Arguments rooted in solely reason can often be met defensively. However, knowledge and opinions displayed in the arts are often based on emotions. Knowledge based on emotions can be better received than that from reason. Perhaps because emotions are easier to relate too.