Real-life situation

In the presentation students need to describe ONE real-life situation.

The real-life situation should be concrete and easily identifiable. It cannot be a broad topic (euthanasia, vegetarianism) but a specific event, experience or contemporary issue. They can be taken from your own experiences, interests or other subjects that you study.

The real-life situation cannot be vague, anecdotal or hypothetical.

There are some popular topics used however they rarely produce good presentations:

• ethical issues – human rights, freedom of speech, racism, discrimination, euthanasia, designer babies;
• news items about crimes (mainly police shootings) and wars;
• harmful government practices and policies particularly with regard to internet surveillance, censorship and secrecy;
• social issues and popular culture (gender roles, beauty, religion). (Theory of knowledge Subject report, May 2015)

The description of the RLS should be brief

This is an example of a concrete real-life situation which is clearly and sufficiently described:

A 14-year old boy in USA took his homemade clock to school to show his teacher. He was arrested on suspicion that it was an explosive device. When it was proven that it was indeed just a clock he was released. The boy is Muslim and his name is Ahmed Mohamed. (Theory of knowledge Subject report May 2016)

Analysing real-life situation (RLS) is not the focus of the presentation but a starting point from which to the student will need to explore larger knowledge question.