L ELAORBNAI LN C G GI T I Z E N S H I P
THE YEAR 12 RESIDENTIAL VISIT
LET’S TOK ABOUT IT Pim Wongswan, 12Z
O
nce the Year 12 students and their piles of luggage were loaded onto the bus, we ventured to Nakhon Nayok for our last ever Residential. Whilst many saw this as a temporary escape from the rigorous IB, others were feeling less than enthusiastic about the five days of workshops, lectures and group projects. The Year 12 Residential Visit is different from previous visits as the entire trip is oriented around the study of Theory of Knowledge (TOK). This subject is one of the compulsory aspects in passing the IB diploma where students must reflect on the nature of knowledge and take a step back to question how we know what we know. Throughout the day we attended sessions where the nature of the workshops and lectures varied on the subject area. Sessions ranged from Human Sciences to the Arts, providing us with a better insight into the different Areas of Knowledge (AoKs) and thus preparing us for future presentations and essays. For example, in the Human Sciences session we explored this area of knowledge through the lens of Economics. We discussed the limitations of economic models as they assume individuals are completely rational or ‘homo economicus’ and thus allowed us to judge the reliability of models (due to the many assumptions that must be made). In addition to these sessions, there was a collaborative group project. The Group 4 project is a collaborative research project where students from different specialised areas of science must choose a solution from a geoengineering category and evaluate its efficiency through the lens of ethics, social and economic impact and perspectives (from different AoKs). We had to collaborate to exchange ideas, allocate the jobs and present the final presentation. Overall, everyone learnt something new from each session which will help enrich our learning in the future. To allow us to unwind and relax after a long day of critical thinking, we were given generous amounts of free time providing us a chance to socialise and enjoy the lush vegetation and scenery of the resort. One of the highlights was the ‘Old Skool Sports Day’ where tutor groups wrestled it out (literally) in a variety of events including the egg and spoon race, three-legged race and tug of war. It was a 16
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