1. The structure of tok

2. Starter
Write down one of the people who appeared in last session’s Apple ad. Who did you chose? Why do you remember them?

3. Objective
“I understand how the TOK course is structured, and how the different elements interact.”

4. The TOK diagram

5. TOK and the real world
In TOK we explore real life situations (RLSs) that raise questions about how we obtain and use knowledge
We think about how these RLSs are linked to TOK, why they are important, and how they might be viewed via different perspectives

6. Example of an effective RLS
In February 2016, the BBC published a story about how social media was fuelling rumours and stories about the Zika virus (see (
This story is linked to natural sciences (medicine and disease), human sciences (the use of social media to communicate), reason (how this is often lacking when we put our trust in social media), and emotion (how this becomes the prevalent way of knowing when we hear rumours)

7. Example of an effective RLS
This story prompts us on to ask questions such as: why are rational explanations often less attractive than irrational ones? How does social media impede our ability to understand science? Why do people believe in conspiracies?  
We could consider the perspectives of different people involved in the story – those who believe in the conspiracy theories, and those who take a more ‘scientific’ approach

8. Exit Find an interesting RLS A short description of your RLS
An explanation of how it links to AOKs and WOKs
Why you think it is important and/or engaging