Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Pain is How Your Brain Says "Thank You"

For next Monday morning (which is one week before our next class on May 7), please find a moment of knowledge that you do not yet fully comprehend.  In working, then, to understand it, work also to understand the nature of its components (as with velocity and acceleration).  In so doing, relate that moment of newly acquired knowledge (with which you may still be wrestling) to another in a different area of knowledge.  Then, you guessed it, document the entire process in a post that culminates in a Knowledge Question.  Remember in your documentation to consider the ways the process was shaped by your role as the unique knower.

11 comments:

  1. My newly acquired knowledge is from the recent composting project the IB Science classes worked on. In my group, we found out that compost is one of the best fertilizers to use while growing plants; compared to commercial fertilizer that can be purchased at the store and has many advertisements. However, I still can't believe that people still go waste money on fertilizer they could be getting for free. I also realized that making compost takes a long time so my knowledge question is:
    To what extent are one's choices based off of outside influence?

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  2. In math class, we have been working on vectors for a while. I had never thought of working with vectors nor did I really even know much about them at all. After working with them for the past week or so, I still find them difficult but the simple part that were once very confusing are no easy- we have just brought word problems into the mix. I have found, with much help from Ms. LT that it is okay to ask questions and even more okay to take your time (Some knowledge I need to apply) I would find it very interesting to see how vector come into play in war tactics and when plotting maps- for instance, would vectors have been used in planning the locations for some of the bombing attacks during the Six Day War.

    KQ: How can knowledge of one thing affect the knowledge of another?

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  3. I’m not fully sure if this counts as “a moment of knowledge that you do not yet fully comprehend” but something that I had to recently understand is how insurance works. I’m still somewhat unsure of how it generally works, but I’m sure how it works for me. In trying to understand how insurance works generally, in terms of how it helps people, I had to try and figure out the different kinds of insurance, and when is insurance private or public, in relation to an organization or larger operation. When/ what point is it when things aren’t as clear as they’re intended to be. When do things change and become something different, that they weren’t intended to be. These are questions I’m struggling with. Another area where this relates would be my political art, for IB Art. The way I intended to create the painting was different from how others saw it. The responses were all the same to each other, but the exact opposite from my own intended meaning. I understand why others had their own meanings behind my work, but I still don’t understand insurance.

    Knowledge Question: When do or at what point do certain things change for the convenience of others at the risk of the beginning intensions?

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  4. The moment of knowledge that i have yet to comprehend is the idea of one's own perception and the perception of those around them and how it might influence their lives. The reason i battle with it is because i have noticed that many people base their lives more on societal perception than their own. I found this largely apparent when at the Westbrook horse show I heard a girl say "The judge is not going to like her, did you see the colour of her show jacket?" It was interesting to me that someone's perspective on the show jacket (completely separate from her riding ability) could jeopardize her chances of placing in the class.I thought about it, and noticed that perception plays a major role in what happens in one's life whether it be their own or some else's.

    Knowledge Question: To what extent does perception (one's own or society's) affect one's life?

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  5. Through a conversation with a friend about the nature of behaviors, I acquired a new yet puzzling knowledge. It was concluded that the roots of most behaviors usually come from certain experiences permanent feelings. I remembered being told as a child not to whistle at night because whistling calls snakes. This information instilled fear in me, which caused my dislike of the sound of whistles. I could not understand how fear played a role in my dislike of a seemingly blameless habit. So my knowledge question is: To what extent do feelings influence behaviors?

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  6. My newly acquired knowledge is from my biology class. We are learning about the ecosystem and the food chain but more specifically about competition between species when the amount of resources they share are very limited. So as the rule of nature applies, the stronger specie gets the food and dominates over the weaker specie. Our teacher gave us the example of black squirrels chasing away the red squirrels and thus decreasing the number of red squirrels due to competition. This is a concept I see in everyday life as the stronger and more powerful group always dominates over the weaker and less powerful group. I was then struggling but managed to connect it to Charles Darwin’s law of Natural Selection which states that it is the gradual process by which biological traits become either more or less common in a population. So this then applies perfectly to the decreasing number of red squirrels and increasing number of black squirrels in the ecosystem.
    KI: To what extent is can insight affect progress

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  7. Recently several questions of moral relevance, ethical dilemmas, and related political arguments have surfaced in conversation between me and my friends, family, and teachers. Soon it became apparent that the real question was this: How does a concept of the future affect how we think about things? Within the knowledge area 'ethics', such a question could be quite narrowly applied as relevant to any given topic. However, to my great delight, I discovered that it was relevant in most of the other areas of knowledge we study in classes: in the social sciences, how does a historian's knowledge of future events influence his recording of the past? (A good question for the IB, seeing as it insists upon a certain span of time - of future - for history to become relevant in its classes.) This question was also relevant to our imminent Forum project involving sacks of flour and reenacted parenthood: how will (or can) this concept, this idea, this scenario of a possible future influence our choices? (Will it?)

    To reiterate, my knowledge issue is: How does a concept of the future affect how we think about things?

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  8. I have never really understood the idea of water birthing. I only knew that a mother would deliver the baby while in a tub of water. I have come across the idea when doing Google searches on mid wives and what not, and today Miriam explained it to me. But I still wouldn’t say I really know what water birthing is all about. So, I searched for information about it on Google, and read a few documents about it.
    With water birthing, the mother is placed into a tub of water when she is in labor. There are many benefits to giving birth to your baby in water such as less pain, and no need for an episiotomy (if you really want to know what that is, look it up). The cool thing about this is how something as simple and habitual as water can be useful in this manner during child birth.
    I am amazed by this process. While learning about it, I felt really happy that I was getting to add this into my brain as another piece of knowledge. I still am a bit confused about it, and I know there is much more to it than I can comprehend. But, I’m still glad I have the gist of it.
    Since it was mentioned in the directions, I thought about the idea of velocity and acceleration. After being told about the different equations and what not, I was still confused. In addition, I didn’t really care about the whole thing, so the experience was not a memorable one. But, at least I know a basic difference between acceleration and velocity: velocity has direction.
    In both situations, I accepted that I did not know everything about the topic at hand. But the difference was my level f interest in each topic. Physics is one class I do not want to take, but I am fascinated by child birth. Due to my level of interest, I felt more inclined to pay attention to the little knowledge I have of child birth than that of velocity and acceleration. In addition, while learning about velocity and acceleration, I was confused the entire time. Even when Ms. L-T explained it clearly, I was not fully in line with the whole idea. I struggle with position vectors as is. But, when I was learning about water birthing, the information was so basic, like information on a pamphlet. It was designed for someone who was just looking for some basic information on water birthing. So, it was easier for me to follow. Thank you Wikipedia, and many other sites. In the end, I came out both processes with just a sliver of knowledge. I am still not sure on either velocity and acceleration, or water birthing.
    Now that all the fun and games are over, it’s time to get serious. It is time to extract a knowledge question: Can emotion control knowledge?

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  9. Over the course of my life I have still not been able to understand the political divide amongst the two main parties. Yes they are based on different opinions and goals, but they do have something in common. This country. The past few years especially have been a non stop tennis match. One party says yes and hits the ball to the other, but then the other says no and hits it right back. I have never been able to understand why they can't find common ground and realize that their fighting won't get them anywhere. This seems so simple. But I know that if it were simple, things would have been sorted out by now. I want to understand. I want to understand and try and make it better.

    KI: Can different perceptions find common ground?

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  10. In ESS, we are doing a lab that determining the percentage of different material in the soil, and in the beginning, we wet the soil and use our finger to feel whether it is smooth, or stick or gritty. By using our sense to determine the percentage might not be accurate but it could give us an idea of how the number would be. It is important to also feel the unknown knowledge, which, I sometimes learn, but not to use them. the knowledge that i learn from classes are not only for tests and grades, to make them valueable, I have to apply them in a deeper level, in order to fully comprehend. And most important, is to treat them sincerely, otherwise I can't truly exchange our feelings and feedbacks.

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  11. Two things that I was never able to wrap my head around were superstition, and astroprojection. I was never able to understand WHY people had certain superstitions, or how they were even created in that matter. The same goes for astroprojection- the idea seems so vast to me that I just find it unbelievable that some can "travel" in their dreams. The two can go hand in hand, because some believe in it and some both. Both are quite odd, and there are many out there that are skeptical that black cats are bad luck, or that all one needs to do is sleep and dream in order for their soul to roam the Earth. Superstition has shaped my role as a knower because there certainly are superstitions that I have heard, that would scare me if I didn't do it. For example, in my culture, if it is past 12am (while its still dark), you must walk into the house backward as to ward off any spirits, and basically stop them from entering the home. While many would be very skeptical of it, I always do it as a precautionary; a "just in case", because I wouldn't want to take the risk and see what would happen. Sounds silly, I know. Astroprojection hasn't really shaped my experience as a knower because it confuses me, so I just overlook all aspects of it because I don't know much about it. These two things are ones that I probably will wrestle in my mind for quite a long time. My K.Q is To what extent does perception justify knowledge?

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