Here are the two final projects by IB Theory of Knowledge classes due at the end of the school year:

 

Instagram Videos

Students must create three short (45-to-one minute each) videos (or one longer one) communicating the meaning of three important TOK concepts.

You can see examples here.

I think Instagram is the easiest tool to use, especially since they have now extended the length of videos to one-minute. However, they are welcome to use other tools.

Students can work alone or with one other classmate.

 

Explain Like I’m Five

Students – on their own or with one other classmate – prepare and teach a four-to-five minute lesson on one or more TOK concepts.

The key, though, is that they have to pretend that they are teaching to five-year-olds.

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough” is often attributed incorrectly to Albert Einstein, though he did say something similar.

That notion has a lot in common with The Feynman Technique.

First, students read, annotate and discuss a chapter from one of my books (Here’s My Chapter On Elements Of A Successful Lesson, Along With Student Hand-Outs THEY Use To Teach).

Then, we watch Explain Like I’m Five videos.

Then students use the planning form that accompanies my chapter on elements of a successful lesson to plan the lesson (that form is actually used by them for longer lessons during the year, but they adapt it for this one).

Then, they teach it to the class.

If we’re pressed for time, they teach it a few times in small groups.  If we have a little more time available, like we might this year, they teach it to the entire class.

 

Let me know if you have any suggestions on how I can make these projects any better!

I’m adding this info to The Best Posts On Helping Students Teach Their Classmates — Help Me Find More.