Tech Resources for Early Childhood Educators

Tech Resources for Early Childhood Educators This is a self-guided tour of useful resources for early childhood educators to encourage thinking about how technology can be used in purposeful ways with young children. For a digital handout that accompanies this tour, please click here.   Examining the Possibilities with Kindergartners and Technology Here are three fun videos related to using technology in early childhood classrooms. Miss Nelson is MissingiPad Artwork Inspired by Peter Reynolds The DotIntegrating Technology in a Kindergarten Classroom Next, explore these sites for other ideas. Note that these teachers are using technology with students to create and publish. They are not using tech at lower levels on Blooms Taxonomy. Young children CAN do more sophisticated work!   The Connected Kinders: Turning iPad Experiments into Adventures in Innovative LearningGoing on a Bear Hunt Using QR CodesHow Kristi Meeuwse Teaches with an iPadTalking Animal ReportsEdutopias Resources for Using iPads in Grades K-2 Exploring iPad Apps iPads are amazing devices for content creation, not just consumption! Ideally, educators should strive to provide opportunities for student voice and choice, designing lessons and projects that allow students of all ages to create content. Heres a collection of apps are more focused on creation than consumption and if you havent seen Osmo, check out this device that using iPads to create really innovative learning games for kids.   Other places to find high quality ed tech materials: AppolearningGraphiteKindertownKinderchat Symbaloo Publishing with Young Children Publishing should be a universal activity in all early childhood classrooms. Check out the following iBook examples:   The Adventures of the Monkey and the Cat by KinderPris Ridge International SchoolConnecting Classrooms: Activities to Promote Global Collaboration by Ben SheridanFamily Time with Apps by the Joan Ganz Cooney FoundationGlobal Book: Schools Around the World by Kristen PainoGlobal Book: Shelters Around the World by Kristen PainoA Global iBook by Meg WilsonInspired Young Authors by Jane RossMy Pet Monster by Jason Sand and Others Building Your Own ECE Personal Learning Network Use social media to enhance your own learning and to connect to others. Here are a few suggestions to get started with connecting to other educators and learning from their best practices. First, join Twitter, and start following other ECE educators and organizations. Then, start participating in Kinderchat, a Twitter chat where kindergarten teachers come together to discuss relevant topics and share resources. Finally, start finding ideas for your classroom by perusing the following blogs and pinterest boards. Blogs Enabling EnvironmentsiTeach with iPadsPassion for EYFSTechnology in Early Childhood Pinterest Augmented RealityKid World CitizenKindergarten - iPadThe Kindergarten SmorgasboardPlayful Learning Investigating Making and Tinkering The Maker Education movement is growing within US schools. What does this look like in early childhood classrooms? Starting points for further exploration may include TinkerLab. Some early childhood classrooms are also exploring the possibilities of digital making through robotics and coding. Check out Bee-Bots, Dash and Dot, Kinderlab Robotics, and Sphero.   Connecting Globally The first step to connecting globally is to get connected yourself. Use social media to meet other teachers, and youll find that project opportunities will organically happen. Projects tend to be more successful when professional relationships are established first; people just seem to be more invested if connections happen first. If you are new to global projects, youll want to get to the point where youre co-designing experiences for students with virtual colleagues. In the meantime, join existing communities and projects in order to get a feel for the project design process. Below are a few starting points and exemplars: The Global Classroom ProjectHello Little World SkypersProjects by JenSkype in the ClassroomiEARN USA Thinking About PD and Additional Resources   Face to face professional development opportunities also an ideal way to participate in professional development. For early childhood specific events, we recommend the NAEYC Annual Conference and the Leveraging Learning  conference. For general ed tech information, think about attending ISTE and if youre interested in creative uses of technology and the Maker Movement, consider attending Constructing Modern Knowledge.   Also, the  Chicago-based Erikson Institute has a site devoted to the role of educational technology in early years classrooms.  This site is a unique resource dedicated to helping early childhood professionals and families make informed decisions about tech. Finally, weve curated a massive list of ECE resources in an Evernote notebook. Well be continuing to add to this, and are welcome to browse our collection!

Diversity in American Society Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Diversity in American Society - Research Paper Example America has placed high value on diversity, for instance, ethnic groups have transformed and celebrated their heritage, and children of immigrants grow up experiencing the languages. America’s success is due to establishment of society that embraces diversity and celebrates the differences of various cultures. The different cultures share core values such as education, family, faith and charity hence diversity has led to great success and development of American society. Due to immigration and oppression, that is, the paradox of Nativism in a Nation of Immigrants (America), English was the primary spoken language. The Alaska Natives and American Indians practiced English as their main language. Other immigrants who came to America learned the language; therefore, the current immigrants should do the same by learning or practicing English. Therefore, every individual who planned to live in America permanently had to assimilate and learn the English language Alcoholism is the most common health problem. Native communities suffer from the common predictors of poor health such as unemployment, poverty, and high school dropout. The native people face five health problems. Alaska Natives and American Indians have high rate of diabetes. It is an issue of poverty and limited access to healthy food (Weaver, 2014). The government - funded Special Diabetes Program for the natives has helped improving the health of the diabetic. There is food movement to recover Native American cuisine and old agricultural practices. Native Americans succumb to injury at an early age as compared to white men. Native people are more prone to die by fire, in a car crash or die as a pedestrian. Sexual abuse is another issue among Native Americans. The American Indian women are highly raped more than the national average according to Justice Department. The tribal courts fail to prosecute non-native men who rape the native women on tribal lands.

Personal letters of soldiers to their families changing the way we Essay

Personal letters of soldiers to their families changing the way we view history of the Civil War - Essay Example In this article, I will be highlighting these findings and new discoveries that I unearthed from reading the letters. The General American Population is well averse with at least the fact that this war was one of the deadliest war ever fought involving the Union solders. According to official statistics from the Civil War Trust, this war involved casualties of the war stood at 620,000 with admission that some of the bodies could not be accounted for because they could not be traced (Civil War Trust). This means that the count given is on the lower scale and thus still tops as the deadliest war. Additionally, majority of these casualties were solders from the confederate states that wanted to secede due to the election of Abraham Lincoln as the President of the United States of America. This can be attributed to the inferior number of Solders from the Confederates as opposed to the union. The same civil war trust organization puts the number of solders as 2,128,948 for the Union solde rs and 1, 082, 119 (Civil War Trust). ... From the letters from the solders, there is inference of Union soldiers complaining about the terrains of Centre County and some solders deriding the confederate State soldiers as knowing little about the terrain yet the war is being fought in their grounds (Olsen 314.). The African American soldiers in the Union Army were also understood to be underpaid as compared to their white counterparts. One such solder, T.D Freeman, is quoted complaining in a letter to his brother-in-law about how the majority of the African American soldiers, â€Å"were in low spirit†¦enlisted for 13 months and have never received one cent† (Silber & Sievens 47) Another aspect of the war that I was already too familiar with was that most of the time was spend by this solders writing letters to their family members and playing games and this is evident from the large number of letters that have been archived in libraries in America. Letters were written by all shades of solders be they Union solde rs or the confederate soldiers. One soldier is quoted as writing to his wife saying that the war was â€Å"99% boredom and 1% sheer terror† (Silber & Sievens 2). These letters, however, have helped me get to learn a few facts about the civil war that I did not know yet. One of this is the fact that not all letters were sad and contained a narration of how harrowing and terrifying the war was. Not all these letters were complaining about the hardship in the battlefield as there are others that I got to read that was lively and filled with humor and hope in its contents. Such letters as expected were written mostly by the Northern-based soldiers who were the Union soldiers and it is

Report on the Financial State of Affairs of Central Pool and Taff View Assignment

Report on the Financial State of Affairs of Central Pool and Taff View Pool - Assignment Example The important factor for consideration both in the case of Central Pool as well as Taff View is that there seems to be an immediate need for the sales to be enhanced since there is gross underutilization of the operating assets. This is evidenced by the Ratios of Operating Profit to Operating assets and the Sales to Operating assets. As against the ratio of operating assets to operating profit of 21% in the case of Field Park it is 1.55% and 4.60% for Central Pool and Taff View respectively. These ratios are very low. Similarly, the ratio of sales to operating assets is only 1.10%... We can review this report together once you have gone through the basics. We can take up from there for the implementation of any suitable plan of action for the overall financial improvement of the units concerned. The important factor for consideration both in the case of Central Pool as well as Taff View is that there seems to be an immediate need for the sales to be enhanced since there is gross underutilization of the operating assets. This is evidenced by the Ratios of Operating Profit to Operating assets and the Sales to Operating assets. As against the ratio of operating assets to operating profit of 21% in the case of Field Park it is 1.55% and 4.60% for Central Pool and Taff View respectively. These ratios are very low. Similarly, the ratio of sales to operating assets is only 1.10% for Central Pool and 1.34% for Taff View, whereas the same ratio for Field Park is 2.80%. Comparatively the ratios for Central Pool and Taff View are poor. Similarly, the profitability of both Taff View and Central Pool is well below the comparative profitability of Field Park. This is quite obviously exhibited by the operating profit to sales ratio of both facilities. The operating profit to sales ratios stands at 1.41% for Central Pool and 3.44% for Taff View. These are very low as compared to the ratio of 7.60% for Field Park signifying the profitability of both the facilities is not up to the mark.  

Competency Goal Essay Example for Free

Competency Goal Essay Functional Area #1 Safe: In order to provide a safe environment and teach children safe practices to prevent and reduce injuries I do the following: †¢I always do my classroom counts every 30 minutes, or more often when necessary, to make sure that my head count matches the actual number of children in my classroom. †¢Our centers are set up to reduce open floor space and the opportunity to run freely indoors †¢I check all toys and equipment for broken or missing parts often to ensure they remain safe for use and play. †¢I ensure that all chemicals and cleaning supplies are put away out of the reach of children or stored in locked cabinets to prevent injury or poisoning. †¢I keep my emergency routes posted and easily visible and my emergency contacts are always with me in a binder and easily accessible. †¢I am trained in emergency evacuation procedures and plans to remove all children from the classroom and/or building in the event of a tornado or fire †¢I am certified in First Aid, CPR, and Pediatric First Aid which makes me knowledgeable of caring for accidents or injuries. Functional Area #2 Healthy: In order to provide an environment that promotes health and prevents illness, and teaches children about good nutrition and practices that promote Wellness, I do the following: †¢Cleaning and sanitizing classroom items, including future toys, a task done multiple times a day. I sanitize all toys immediately after being put into a child’s mouth, to prevent the spread of germs. †¢ I wash my hands wear gloves before after handling food, helping with toileting, cleaning noses to prevent germs from being spread. †¢ I follow the center’s policies for sick children to prevent other illnesses in the classroom. †¢We also serve Healthy Balanced meals breakfast, lunch snack. Functional Area #3 – Learning Environment: In order to use relationships, the physical space, materials, daily schedule, and routines to create a secure, interesting, and enjoyable environment that promotes engagement, play exploration, and learning of all children including children with disabilities and special needs, I do the following: †¢I have made sure that all Centers are laid out to help Children better benefit in learning. By putting the quite, busy messy centers together. †¢We also have an ABC carpet that’s just for group time. Limit 10 to 15mins †¢I have put out many different learning activities for each center. Reading has lots of books, writing has name cards letter strips, Dramatic Play table toys has theme related items. Blocks have cars, animals, dollhouse furniture. Science has Theme related items Art I put out different things weekly to keep the Creativity going. †¢Also during the day we have group time twice, free time, small groups twice, outdoor play twice when weather permits nap.

Capital Punishment Essay - I Stand Against :: Argumentative Persuasive Essays

Essays - I Stand Against Capital Punishment      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Capital punishment is what I consider, â€Å"the legal† punishment of a criminal.   Capital punishment has been used as a form of punishment for many years. At modern time, capital punishment is more controlled. Although, when capital punishment is mentioned it brings shivers down the back of most of society. Being it is a factor of death, capital punishment , should not be taken so lightly.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The term capital does not represent or signify any ideas in the negative aspect.   Capital is defined as first or foremost; first rate or excellent.   Punishment, on the other hand, is defined as the rough handling or penalization for a wrong doing.   Neither of these terms, when mentioned individually signify anything in the negative aspect.   Although when these two terms are combined   there is alot more meaning to them than just excellent or penalization.   These now strictly signify, death.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Capital punishment has been a form of â€Å"disciplining† since 1750 B.C., when it was part of the code of Hammarabi.   The bible itself, also prescribes death as a penalty for any of thirty crimes committed. The crimes ranged from any between murder and fornication.   In the 18th century more than two hundred capital crimes were recognized, and as a result over one thousand people a year were faced with the sentence of death.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Now at modern time, the death penalty, has been rekindled. Although, it is not as barbaric as it was.   Now the law only allows itself the use certain types of â€Å"disciplining†. In the early 18th and 19th century the death penalty was inflicted in many ways.   Some ways were, crucifixion, boiling in oil, drawing and quartering, impalement, beheading, burning alive, crushing, tearing asunder, stoning and drowning.   In the late 19th century the types of punishments were limited and only a few of them remained permissible by law.   In the 19th century capital punishment was to only be inflicted by the following methods: hanging, electrocution, the gas chamber, firing squad and lethal injection.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The opinions brought upon us stating that the death penalty is a very strong deterrent against crime holds allot of water.   It is a proven statistical fact that states that have reinstated and now enforce the death penalty show no difference in their crime and murder rate.   In some cases, states that do impose the death penalty have a higher crime rate than the states that do not impose this â€Å"disciplinary† action.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"Whosoever shed man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed† (Genesis 9:6).   With this statement from Genesis, some people could almost

Theory of knowledge

What are the methods of the historians and how do they compare with other methodologies: First of all, we have to know what is the definition of history: It is a branch of knowledge dealing with past events, political, social, economic, of a country, continent, or the world. It is an orderly description of past events. It is also a train of events connected with a person or thing. Secondly I will define what is a method. It is 1) a system, orderliness, 2) it is a way of doing something 3) doing things with 4) it is a science or study of something. The differences between the facts of the past and historical facts: We all know, or think we know, what a fact is: a reliable piece of information, something we know to be, in the common sense meaning of the word â€Å"true†. We also know, or think we know, what an historical fact is. Give examples. These are facts, definite pieces of historical knowledge, close perhaps to the natural scientific knowledge the nineteenth century historians wanted to use as their model of knowledge. But these facts are only the start of history, only the foundation on which history is built. History is not the facts of the past alone but the processing of these facts into a coherent, meaningful interpretation of the past with which these facts are concerned. â€Å"History is the interpretation of these facts, the processing of them into a narrative with causes and effects.† These facts, these pieces of information about the past are important to historians. Historians must be certain of their accuracy, must have confidence in their integrity before they can confidently interpret them for their contemporaries. Historians collect their facts from whenever they can. Certain historical facts, mostly those obtained from archives, may be collected directly by historians themselves. Historians can visit public records offices or churches and examine historical documents directly. Epigraphy is an interesting example of such a discipline. It is the study of ancient inscriptions: letters and words and symbols, chiselled, moulded or embossed on stones. E.g.: the Rosetta stone: it is an inscribed stone found near Rosetta in northern Egypt in 1799. History is a selection: Historians make history by selecting facts and processing them and it is the processing that creates history. History has been described as an enormous jig saw with lots of bits missing. Historians try to create the missing pieces. They can only do this by selecting from all the information available to them. What evidence we have for this comes, of course, from the people in the middle Ages who wrote about their own lives and times. And the people who wrote about their own lives and times in the middle Ages in Europe were monks and priests. Imaginative understanding is an important part of an historian's skill, but imaginative understanding varies from historian to historian. They have to imaginatively understand the minds of the older people. The only way they can do this is by using their own thought processes. Historians recognize that to portray history is impossible. They cannot really be sure of the motives of the writers of the archive documents. â€Å"The past can only be seen through the eyes of the present†. Historian should present their records of the past. Ranke and his fellow nineteenth century historians believed that not only was it possible to present the past â€Å"How it really was† but they also believed they were doing exactly that when they wrote their history books. The historian's job was to collect together a proven body of facts and present them to the readers. Is history a unique area of knowledge? We have seen that natural sciences, mathematics and logic, and the social sciences have distinctive areas of knowledge. Can a similar claim be made for history? YES of course it can be made!!!!. One way of answering this question is to look at the work of historians. As we do this, we should ask ourselves the question † What do historians do that scientists, mathematicians and social scientists do not do?†!!!!!. Four different stages exists: 1) Recording: Some scholars collect records and preserve evidence from the past. If we stick to our definition of historians as interpreters of facts these scholars are not historians in our sense of the word. They are archivists and curators, collectors and preservers. E.G: Nothing is moved until photographs are taken, measurements made and meticulous records compiled of everything that is there and exactly where it is. That is the work of the historical researchers who record and preserve evidence from the past. Every objects is recorded and, as far as possible identified. The historical knowledge these Historians have is no different from the knowledge of natural science: it is empirical and of course objective. Give example of the titanic. 2) Assessment: These historians asses the evidence they have, compare it to other similar evidences that might be available and come to the conclusion that Holden's room are indeed a unique historical event. 3) Reconstructing the past: Having assessed the evidence and accepted its importance, historians now have to use it, to infer from it and to reconstruct the past. They use evidences. Historians also are interested in reconstructing beyond the obvious. They attempt to reconstruct the values of a wealthy youth 100 years ago. 4) Interpreting: Historians ask themselves questions. They might compare the artefacts with other atifacts for instance†¦ Historians' ways of knowing are distinct. They record, assess, reconstruct and interpret in a way that others scholars do not. Historians continually reinterpret the events of the past and reappraise them for each new generation. Historical sources: Primary and secondary sources: The problem with the past is that it has passed. It has gone. The idea of all time past, and present, running parallel is intriguing but until we have the technology to explore other times in reality, we have to explore the past through what the past has left us, through the multitude of artefacts surviving from times past. Historians use what they term PRIMARY SOURCES as their main access to the past. Secondary sources are also available: these are sources of information provided by other historians. Primary sources are the bedrock of history. They include every conceivable type of documents: maps, treaties, churches and temple records, imperial archive documents, letters, legal records, diaries, newspapers, catalogues and even bus tickets. They can be formal or informal, private or public, serious or frivolous. Primary sources also include artefacts. Unlike science, say, history is often criticized for serving no purpose. We are unable to learn from history, it is argued, either because precisely the same circumstances as in the past cannot arise again in future, or because if sufficiently similar circumstances did arise, we would not be able to act differently. In the natural sciences we have both statements of immediate observations, reporting for instance the outcome of an experiment, and general laws from which we can derive predictions. These two kinds of statements are justified in quite different ways: observational statements by perception. The evidence, not necessarily written, which historical research is based on are the ‘sources'. Sources need not be items that go back to the time in history which is being studied, but can be texts written since then about that time: the former are called primary, and the latter secondary sources. There are two main questions that must be asked regarding primary sources. The first of these concerns their authenticity, or genuineness. Suppose that we have, for instance, a painting of a particular historical event; then the painter may have added or omitted certain details to please his customer, or to make it a better painting, he may not have been there himself and have used incomplete accounts, the painting could even be a later forgery, and so on. The other question concerns their completeness. We must bear in mind that the material available to us has already been systematically selected, in a variety of ways: we tend to know more about the upper classes of the societies we study, because it is largely their doings that were recorded, while we find many ruins in some parts of the world, little remains of the wooden structures that were more common elsewhere, and so on. On one side there are those who hold that historical explanation must be like the scientific explanation of an event: to understand an historical event, we must have a general, or ‘covering' law, so that from this law and a description of the historical situation we can deduce that the event would happen. For even where history is capable of being objective, there are problems with the ‘evidence' it is based on, as we have seen: the sources available may not be authentic, and they will certainly be incomplete. And to the extent that history is (necessarily) subjective, i.e. a matter of the position from which it is written, historical accounts or explanations are liable to the problem of bias, i.e. partiality, tendentiousness or even prejudice. The historian cannot be objective about the period, which is his subject. In this he differs (to his intellectual advantage) from its most typical ideologists, who believed that the progress of technology, ‘positive science' and society made it possible to view their present with the unanswerable impartiality of the natural scientist, whose methods they believed themselves (mistakenly) to understand. For much of the time that history has been written, the work of the historian was not thought to be particularly problematic — as long as he had the right intentions, he would just try to discover the truth, and †tell how it really was.† The first law for the historian is that he shall never dare utter an untruth. The second is that he shall suppress nothing that is true. Moreover, there shall be no suspicion of partiality in his writing, or of malice. History, then, is not, as it has so often been misdescribed, a story of successive events or an account of change. Unlike the natural scientist, the historian is not concerned with events as such at all. He is only concerned with those events, which are the outward expression of thoughts. †¦ Theory of Knowledge Bertrand Russell was a British philosopher and a mathematician who is generally recognized as one of the founders of analytic philosophy. He, like many other people was searching for proof and evidence of us- people being rational animals, whose thoughts and actions are reasonable and sensible. Reason is a way of knowing in which we build up explanations by refining independent ideas and theories in order to reach a logical conclusion or in other words we use reason to decide whether something is correct or wrong. Through observations and experiments we can prove by reason if our hypothesis was right, and by this broaden our knowledge horizons. Reason is present as much as in everyday choice making, as it is present in science, mathematics and other areas of knowledge. However reason is not always the most useful way of knowledge, for example in music and arts, as we are not robots and we also rely on our emotions and perception. So how can we gain truth by reason, when there are so many different opinions and emotions involved? Reason can help us gain knowledge, but only to a certain extent and therefore it has its strengths and weaknesses, which I am going to discuss in my essay. In science logic and reason are said to be the core element to get a valid conclusion, but there are some contradictions and exceptions to this general judgment. For example in biology, we use reason and logic to make a hypothesis, and then through several experiments or observations, we can obtain a valid and logical conclusion, which will support our hypothesis. As an example, a biology class, had to run an experiment to find out the presence of glucose and starch in two different food solutions. In two test tubes A and B, two different food solutions, which are unknown to the students, are found. The class divided into four different groups and each group had to add chemicals such as iodine for starch and benedicts solution for glucose to find out, in which test tube was each solution. If starch was present the solution had to turn from blue to black, and for glucose it had to change from blue to orange. Group 1, was successful and their one solution turned to black, proving that it has starch in it and the other turned orange demonstrating that it has glucose. Group 2 however, had a negative outcome, as both of their solutions did not change color, therefore showing that it has none of the solutions present. One of the solutions of group 3 turned green, instead of orange, therefore contradicting the hypothesis and the whole theory. By this example we see that logic and reason, has its own uncertainties and doubts. Reason can sometimes obscure our knowledge if we see something, which contradicts our initial theory. This logic is quite similar to perception, as we need to use our five senses- see, hear, touch, taste and smell to acquire a rational verdict. In music and art, I think that reason as a way of knowing has both advantages and disadvantages. We cannot express our opinion on a piece of music or a piece of art without bringing up emotion and perception. A composer cannot write music without any feelings, same as an artist cannot paint without inspiration through his senses. A piece of music however requires some basic reason. For example if a composer needs to write a concerto for a violin, he will not write a concerto for a piano, and no other instrument than a violin can replace it. This is very basic reason, but we can see that it is present in creative arts. I am an IB Art student and I know that reason has little to do with it. Making art is based mostly on emotion and on the way we feel or what we think at a certain moment. Art comes from the heart, and reason is only present when we need to know which two colors for example make purple or what do we need to do to make a canvas. Add reason Another demonstration of advantages and disadvantages of reason is present the case of superstitions. In many cultures superstitions make up a lot of beliefs that are carried throughout generations. For example it is said that it is bad luck to go forward of a black cat has passed your way. Even though I have never heard anyone claim that he or she has bad luck because of a cat passing his or her way, I would still rather prefer to avoid it, as I was brought up with this and I actually started to believe in it. Even though there is no scientific prove of this superstition and common logic experience says that this is not true, most people would still avoid it. Therefore reason can be very objective, in a way that it can differ from different cultures and dissimilar beliefs. Mathematics is the one area where reason plays a fundamental part. Reason is the basis on which mathematics is founded. Before any mathematical theorem can be taken as true, it must be backed by a reasonable mathematical proof that shows, that the answer got is correct. This type of empirical, reasonable verification shows that of all the areas of knowledge, mathematics uses reason the most. In mathematics, an answer is either wrong or right. There is no midpoint in mathematics. Without reason, all mathematical arguments would naturally fail, and so if a mathematical statement cannot be fortified with reason, the statement should be rejected. Mathematics is the only area of knowledge where every statement must be backed up by reason. Reason itself is not enough to explain such things as the origins of the universe, or right and wrong, and so reason can and should be complemented by other sources of knowledge. Reason can be used when the sense misinformed us. For example when you put a straw in water senses tell us that the straw is bent, because it looks like it, but through reason we deduce that the straw is straight. Therefore reason is more reliable than our senses and is used more effectively. For the conclusion, I should discuss whether in the end our knowledge can be obtained purely by logic and reason, or it needs the support of human emotion and perception to give us reasonable comprehension of our existence. â€Å"Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason,†- this is a quote by Oscar Wilde. I agree with him as I think that emotions and feelings often overtake reason, as we are more driven by our desires, fears and passion than logic and rationality. I think that pure reason cannot exist without other ways of knowledge, and has its strengths and weaknesses. Reason is valid when it is not contradicted by anyone, but can we call something rational knowledge when someone disputes it? Reason within its domain is very reliable, as for example in mathematics, you can be almost one hundred percent certain that something is true, and this is the main strength of reason. I think that in all the other areas of knowledge, reason has many weaknesses. Reason always needs input from another source and therefore can only be reliable as its source of data. In the arts, in the absence of inspiration, no great work can be done, however reason is present in the mixing of colors and proportion and so on. Science without any data has no use of reason, and is therefore unreliable. My conclusion to this essay is that reason always needs input from another source and therefore can only be reliable as its source of data. Theory of Knowledge How do we acquire our knowledge? Don’t we acquire our knowledge through our senses? We know something is round because we have seen it and we have touched it. A blind person can distinguish a sphere from a cube, because of the sense of touch. But can a blind person really know what the difference between green and purple are? Maybe, but it might be a hard one to explain because you cannot really explain what light and dark is if a blind person has not really seen these differences. The eyes might not be the true organ of sight but in my opinion it is one of the necessary things needed to acquire knowledge. But what is sight? What is knowledge? According to the Oxford Dictionary sight is defined as the faculty or power of seeing, and knowledge is information and skills acquired through experience or education. The definition of sight from the Oxford Dictionary did not connect it with the word knowledge for knowledge helps us to describe the object that we are seeing. For example, if we look at an object with our eyes without any knowledge of what is being perceived, the object that we are seeing will be just an unknown object to us. The object being perceived does not contain that much meaning to it for the lack of knowledge. So is knowledge really the true organ of sight? It is to some extent for we cannot fully comprehend what we see if we did not have the previous knowledge to describe what we see and without seeing I think it makes it a little bit harder to acquire enough knowledge to fully describe what is around us. Can knowledge be only achieved by seeing? How do blind people acquire their knowledge without their eyes? I think they gain knowledge by experience, touching and hearing. They learn things differently than people who can see because they probably create their own images of what we see. It is through knowledge of what they have experienced that they â€Å"see† what is put infront of them. For us who can see and have been seeing in our life time gain knowledge from what we see and what we have experienced. All these contribute to us gaining knowledge of the world. Perception, defined as the act or faculty of apprehending by means of the senses or of the mind. This plays a vital role in some subjects rather than others because some just require more understanding than the rest. It is important to understand what you learn before practicing. In short, our senses do give us to a certain extent knowledge and this works together with the sense of perception. Theory of Knowledge How do we acquire our knowledge? Don’t we acquire our knowledge through our senses? We know something is round because we have seen it and we have touched it. A blind person can distinguish a sphere from a cube, because of the sense of touch. But can a blind person really know what the difference between green and purple are? Maybe, but it might be a hard one to explain because you cannot really explain what light and dark is if a blind person has not really seen these differences. The eyes might not be the true organ of sight but in my opinion it is one of the necessary things needed to acquire knowledge. But what is sight? What is knowledge? According to the Oxford Dictionary sight is defined as the faculty or power of seeing, and knowledge is information and skills acquired through experience or education. The definition of sight from the Oxford Dictionary did not connect it with the word knowledge for knowledge helps us to describe the object that we are seeing. For example, if we look at an object with our eyes without any knowledge of what is being perceived, the object that we are seeing will be just an unknown object to us. The object being perceived does not contain that much meaning to it for the lack of knowledge. So is knowledge really the true organ of sight? It is to some extent for we cannot fully comprehend what we see if we did not have the previous knowledge to describe what we see and without seeing I think it makes it a little bit harder to acquire enough knowledge to fully describe what is around us. Can knowledge be only achieved by seeing? How do blind people acquire their knowledge without their eyes? I think they gain knowledge by experience, touching and hearing. They learn things differently than people who can see because they probably create their own images of what we see. It is through knowledge of what they have experienced that they â€Å"see† what is put infront of them. For us who can see and have been seeing in our life time gain knowledge from what we see and what we have experienced. All these contribute to us gaining knowledge of the world. Perception, defined as the act or faculty of apprehending by means of the senses or of the mind. This plays a vital role in some subjects rather than others because some just require more understanding than the rest. It is important to understand what you learn before practicing. In short, our senses do give us to a certain extent knowledge and this works together with the sense of perception.