Embedded Files
We are always in the process of updating this site with the new curriculum and learning resource material. Bookmark this site and visit often.
8 Big Questions
8 Big Questions
Big Question 1 asks:
Big Question 1 asks:
“Can we trust our immediate knowledge of the world?”
“Can we trust our immediate knowledge of the world?”
Our suggested pathway for this big question is via sense perception and memory. Key thinkers you’ll encounter if you follow this route include Rene Descartes, John Locke, Donald Hoffman, Elizabeth Loftus, Beau Lotto, Donald Hoffman, and Barbara Kingsolver.
Big Question 2 asks:
Big Question 2 asks:
“What is the purpose of knowledge, and how can we assess its value?”
“What is the purpose of knowledge, and how can we assess its value?”
Our suggested pathway for this Big Question is via the natural sciences and indigenous knowledge systems. Key thinkers you’ll encounter if you follow this route include Wade Davis, Albert Einstein, Stuart Firestein, Damon Horowitz, Carl Sagan, and Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Big Question 3 asks:
“How do different ways of knowing and areas of knowledge interlink?”
“How do different ways of knowing and areas of knowledge interlink?”
Our suggested pathway for this Big Question is via reason and emotion, and the arts and ethics. Key thinkers you’ll encounter if you follow this route include Daniel Tammett, Antonio Damasio, Michael Mosley, Barbara Kingsolver, Immanuel Kant, and John Stuart Mill.
Big Question 4 asks:
Big Question 4 asks:
“How does shared and personal knowledge shape our understanding of the world?”
“How does shared and personal knowledge shape our understanding of the world?”
Our suggested pathway for this Big Question is via language and ethics. Key thinkers you will encounter if you follow this route include Noam Chomsky, Plato, John Locke, Paul Bloom, and Barack Obama.
Big Question 5 asks:
“How is our understanding of the world affected by the way it is represented?”
“How is our understanding of the world affected by the way it is represented?”
Our suggested pathway for this Big Question is via the human sciences and reason. Key thinkers you will encounter if you follow this route include Richard Feynman, Karl Popper, and Molly Crockett.
Big Question 6 asks the question:
Big Question 6 asks the question:
“Is our understanding of the world determined by our perspective?”
“Is our understanding of the world determined by our perspective?”
Our suggested pathway for this Big Question is via history and memory. Key thinkers you’ll encounter if you follow this route include John Gray, Steven Pinker, Winston Churchill, and George Orwell.
Big Question 7 asks:
Big Question 7 asks:
“How and why does knowledge develop over time?”
“How and why does knowledge develop over time?”
Our suggested pathway for this Big Question is via language and the natural sciences. Key thinkers you’ll encounter if you follow this route include John McWhorter, Thomas Kuhn, Kory Stamper, Erin McKean, and Sir Isaac Newton.
Big Question 8 asks:
Big Question 8 asks:
“What makes someone an expert knower?”
“What makes someone an expert knower?”
This BQ unit is different from all the others in that students decide which AOK/WOK they will focus on, and create a presentation to convey their findings. They will answer a couple of focus questions, which will link to the other Big Questions, thus culminating the course by consolidating what they already know.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse