Activity 1 - Finding patterns in the natural sciences

Time​: 45 min
Task​: Your group must attempt to guess the pattern that your teacher is using to accept or reject playing cards.
  • Your teacher will split you into groups of 3 and a pack of cards (maybe 2) will be shared evenly between the groups.
  • The teacher will then rotate around the groups and you will offer one card to them.
  • The teacher can accept or reject the card depending on the pattern they have chosen.
  • After 2 or 3 rounds, groups can suggest a hypothesis on their turn.
  • After a successful hypothesis is stated, the teacher might repeat the game with a more challenging pattern (see answers page for teacher help).
  1. If you were to describe the process you used to find the pattern in the format of a flowchart, what might it look like?
  2. Can you make links from your flowchart to this version of the scientific method?
  3. Two of the fundamental features of the scientific method are repeatability and falsification. How might you have used these in the game? Why are they important?
  4. In this game, you can be 100% certain that you are correct because the teacher can tell you. Is this true in the natural science as an area of knowledge?

Activity 2 - Ways of knowing in the natural sciences (​IB TOK specific)

Time: 15 min.
Task: Throughout the scientific method we may rely on a number of ways of knowing to help us. For the following scientific contributions, can you explain the link between the science and the role of the WOKs?
  1. Rutherford's gold foil experiment (17.50-25.00): Sense perception; intuition, reason.
  2. Mendeleev's predictions of the missing elements: Reason; faith.
  3. Kekulé's dream about the structure of benzene: Intuition; imagination.
  4. Fritz Haber's work on chemical weapons: Emotion.
  5. Organic nomenclature: Language.
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