Theory of Knowledge: Maths AOK FULL UNIT

This is the complete four-lesson Mathematics Area of Knowledge unit I use with Grade 11 TOK.

The unit is deliberately structured so that students build their understanding of Mathematics as an AOK before gradually applying it to the kind of argument they will eventually need for the TOK Essay.

The four lessons are:

1. Does Mathematics Only Create Useful Knowledge When It Is Applied?
   Pure and applied mathematics, validity, usefulness, precision and the status of mathematical knowledge.

2. Do Perspectives Matter in Mathematics?
   Platonism and formalism, mathematical objectivity, human choices, statistics, models and expertise.

3. Why Does Mathematics Create Valid Knowledge?
   Axioms, proof, deductive and inductive reasoning, certainty, Gödel and comparison with the Natural Sciences.

4. Can Mathematical Knowledge Be Unethical?
   The Manhattan Project, facial recognition, predictive policing, medical modelling, responsibility, foreseeable harm and the boundaries of acceptable investigation.

Each lesson contains a full student worksheet and accompanying PowerPoint, with starters, structured tasks, extensions, explanations, modelled support and answers. The activities are designed to work with mixed-ability Grade 11 classes and to make some fairly difficult TOK ideas manageable without watering them down.

Every lesson also builds towards the TOK Essay. Students finish by using what they have learned to construct claims, counterclaims, real-life examples and judgements rather than treating Mathematics as another isolated section of the TOK course.

Designed for the current IB Theory of Knowledge course and suitable for DP1/Grade 11 or for revisiting Mathematics during TOK Essay preparation.