In pursuit of knowledge: Apeejay’s IB school hosts TOK exhibition

Our beliefs, ideas and opinions are shaped by the information that is available to us. Have you thought about who creates this data? What are the sources behind it? How and why do we have access to it? Are these owned by an organisation, individual or community? And finally, can we deem it to be completely true?

These questions are truly challenging. They simply overturn what we know and what we think we know. To explore these questions about knowledge and the process of knowing, Diploma Programme (DP) students of Apeejay School, International – South Delhi, organised an exhibition titled, ‘Theory of Knowledge’ (TOK).  

At the event, young learners displayed their exhibits, rather well-researched labour of love, which emphasised comparisons and connections between areas of knowledge and encouraged the attendees to become aware about their perspectives and notions shared with others.

To start off, the first room of the exhibition showcased how knowledge is perceived and consumed by us. With an ornamental ‘tree of knowledge’, students presented how factors such as language, technology, science, mathematics form our knowledge.

In the following rooms, DP presenters set aside different showcases. Vedha Jangir, a student, worked upon the theme of ‘Knowledge and Religion’. Under this, she enquired how our subjective knowledge has the power to impact objective decisions. She curated lac bangles from Rajasthan, a controversial religion-based tweet and a book by historian Devdutt Pattanaik.

Ananya Gupta, another student, displayed how ‘Knowledge and Politics’ come together. Through her project, she questioned press censorship, media bias and gender discrimination. Further she said, “I wish to highlight that even the Body Mass Index (BMI) that we calculate is driven by data of European men taken down many decades ago. To use the same statistics upon the world and push forward the idea of a perfect body is grossly wrong. It is not inclusive and does not account for individuals with different abilities.”

While personal is political, student Molvika Khanna reflected upon her personal experiences and how they are interpreted by the world. Her exhibit was a visual delight as she curated a cabinet of her memories, an abstract painting and a hand-painting Japanese shoji. To add to it, her TOK exhibit was themed, ‘Knowledge and the Knower’ through which she represented how knowledge is relative, community-centric as well as individualistic.

Further, to raise awareness about discontinuing the act of hunting, student Reha Aggarwal displayed a painted tent illustration. For her TOK exhibit, she chose the theme ‘Knowledge and Technology’ wherein she discussed the evolution of technology from a VR headset to smart watch and Alexa. She displayed how our current knowledge can be an improvement upon the past one. Her classmate, Tejas Kapil worked on ‘Knowledge and Historical Developments’ for his project. In this, he compared the book, ‘The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams and Making of China’, data based on the New York Stock Exchange and the influence of cryptocurrency on people. He shared how knowledge and decisions of an individual are based on conditions such as war, global health crisis and world economy.

Sharing his experience of attending the event, Mr Purshottam Jangir says, “The TOK subject is helping children research, question and form valuable opinions based on pure knowledge. Every student of the school has put in a lot of hard work for the big day. It was a fantastic show and the teachers too have shown immense support and collaboration.”

Mr Rajesh Kumar, parent of a student in the school says, “By witnessing the exhibition, I have understood the true essence of knowledge today. The new generation is making waves and engaging in deep knowledge and critical thinking. Truly, this is the way forward!” Resonating a similar idea, Ms Menoka, mother of another student shared, “The exhibition has boosted my knowledge and all the students have done exceedingly well. I wish to thank all the teachers and staff at Apeejay for training them to do so.”

Finally, the event inspired students of Middle-Years-Programme and Primary-Years-Programme as well to look at objects through a different lens. The day was a resounding success for interactive discussions and some food for thought.