# data[].attributes.body
The free newsletter unpacks important and thought-provoking news stories every month, and helps you to think about them critically. Subscribe here.

# data[].attributes.body
Download a HUGE amount of free lessons, newsletters, TED talks docs, assessment guidance, and other goodies on this page.

# data[].attributes.body
Knowledge questions (KQs) are at the heart of what we do in TOK. Good KQs should ask second-order questions about the world - in other words, HOW we know, rather than first-order questions, which are concerned with WHAT we know.

We've arranged these KQs in a way that relates to our 5 Big Question framework for TOK, which is our favoured way of structuring the course. There are other ways to structure TOK, such as the Classic structure.

# data[].attributes.body
What are the implications of the assertion that “The Universe is under no obligation to make sense to you”?

Is new scientific knowledge created via the ‘shoulders of giants’, or ‘paradigm shifts’?

Do the natural sciences rely completely upon imagination?

Is the human tendency to compete with others a help or a hindrance to the acquisition of (scientific) knowledge?

Are new ideas created by accepting or rejecting existing knowledge?

Do you agree that “art makes you question the [scientific] reality around you”?

Is scientific knowledge only ever provisional?

To what extent do we depend on imagination to help us produce new knowledge in the natural sciences?

Do our ideas of what constitutes a natural science depend on the point of time, or cultural context?

# data[].attributes.body
Is scientific knowledge free from biases?

Can the production of scientific knowledge be tainted by cognitive biases?

What characteristics of knowledge within the natural sciences enable it to be shared by diverse groups of people?

How do developments in the natural sciences affect other areas of knowledge?

Who decides what is ‘mainstream’ science?

Do the natural sciences deal with knowledge that clashes with knowledge produced in indigenous societies?

To what extent is scientific knowledge the product of the society that creates it?

Does nationalism affect our ability to be objective about the natural sciences?

# data[].attributes.body
How should we simplify scientific ideas in order to represent them?

Can the language used to convey ideas and concepts in the natural sciences be precise enough to avoid ambiguity?

How can data visualizations be manipulated in order to spin the knowledge they communicate?

How does the way a scientific idea is communicated shape its validity?

How does it change our understanding of something when we (radically) alter our terminology related to it?

What role do metaphors play in our understanding of the natural sciences?

How do ‘shifting meanings’ complicate the way we approach debates in the natural sciences?

What are the most effective ways to convey scientific knowledge?

What is the role of classification in (scientific) knowledge?

# data[].attributes.body
Is (/should) science be free of value judgements?

Does science develop at the same pace as ethical values?

Should we reject ideas and theories when they clash with our modern-day sensibilities?

Do ethical constraints help or hinder the production of useful scientific knowledge?

Do you agree that there is a danger in hero-worshipping certain figures in the natural sciences?

What is the difference between the evidence used to justify scientific and ethical claims?

Who should make the decisions about what is, and what isn’t ethically acceptable in the sciences?

# data[].attributes.body
What makes a field ‘scientific’?

Are the natural sciences characterised by their content, or method?

What is the relationship between the knowledge produced in the human and natural sciences?

To what extent is knowledge underpinned by unprovable assumptions in the natural sciences?

What is the purpose of the natural sciences?

Is knowledge in the natural sciences always produced via the ‘scientific method’?

How ‘error-proof’ is scientific research?

What is the role of induction and deduction in the production of scientific knowledge?

Is the (scientific) knowledge we find determined entirely by the questions we ask?