Lab Report Photosynthesis affected by light intensities - IA help needed urgently

[ibstudent77]

So I'm currently planning on doing an experiment that uses an aquatic plant, measuring the rate of photosynthesis with different light intensities.

 

Dependent Variable: Number of bubbles produced (rate of photosynthesis)

Independent Variable: Light intensities

 

Is this too simple for me to score a high grade?

All suggestions/improvements welcome! 

[kw0573]

Hi I am not going to directly answer the question but I hope what I say will be helpful.

First, I didn't take biology with IB but somewhere else. 
Often times teacher will approve of topics that peers will find too simplistic because teachers are more experienced at taking a seemingly straightforward question and make the experiment detailed. Narrowing down the variables alone (i don't even see a procedure) does not define the success the of a lab or a lab report. Sometimes it does because the question is too specific or broad. I do think this is in between, so potentially it might work. You have to plan the procedure, data collection and analysis tools carefully to build on top of your topic. This goes for whichever lab report or research question. 

This is what I mean: doing 5 datapoints, plotting once, going to a conclusion; vs doing 25 datapoints, attempting multiple graphs of best fit, using more analytical tools than min/max slopes and R-squared, thinking about factors you may have overlooked, modifying the lab to collect better results, then arrive at one or more conclusions that is fully supported by the evidence. 

Good luck!

 

[Guest]

This is actually the exact same question we're doing for a practice IA (same DV too) - well, it's to teach us how to write a proper IA. Thus, I'm assuming that it'll be accepted.

 

When writing your research question ensure that you have something like:

 

How does -IDV- affect -process- as measured by -DV and how it will be measured- produced by -scientific name of living organisms used- over -amount of time-?