Math IA on Optimizing Materials? Or Video Games?

[Erita]

Hello,

My teacher suggested to pick a topic that we are really interested in for our Math SL IA. I wrote out list of things I liked, and I felt that architecture was the only one where I could actually get a lot of personal engagement in the IA. I wanted to have a "theoretical" simple building, where I would use optimization to find the best dimensions for a set amount of materials. Then I would use trig to find form a roof, and add the additional costs there.

I am completely lost if this is what I am supposed to do or not, because all the examples he showed had students finding a formula, or an answer that served a purpose. Does my IA have to find an answer or formula that can be used by others? And if so, is there another way to use my topic of architecture and find something useful to the world, or other people?

As well, my back-up idea is to use probability to find all the different combinations of hairstyles, eye shapes, and skin colours of a popular video game because I heard someone say that all the players in the game look unoriginal, and all the same. I wanted to see all the different combinations, and look at the player count to see theoretically, how many players would look the same as me. Do you think this would be a better idea? I feel like with this one, I can actually find an answer in my IA.

Thanks

Edited September 13, 2016 by Erita

[kw0573]

Your first/main option is more interesting and elaborate. The smarter option is to have you define the work, instead to have the research question limit you. So if say you don't know how to optimize a specific shape, you can use another. When you limit to "number of combinations", you have get an answer and you can't change the direction of your essay if and when you find obstacles.

[Erita]

One of my concerns is that if I make my IA on the first topic, is that I will have to make up the amount of materials I have. I feel like it would be the same as any optimization question in a math textbook. As well, my answer that I find at the end will only work for the structure in my IA, and won't be much use outside of the IA.

Should I be doing something that will lead me to an answer or formula that would be of use outside my own IA?

[kw0573]

There are some design elements to the first question. The complexity partially depends on how creative you can/want to get with it. For your second topic, it seems like what you can write in your exploration is limited by the game (and this is what I was getting at in my first reply). It would be harder to add personal engagement in the second topic than the first. Just a side note, you won't be finding probability for the second topic, but some total number of permutations through counting methods. 

Now because ultimately you are the one writing the exploration, I need to make some predictions about how both ideas will result in an exploration to conclude that the building optimization is better of the two. If your building is much simpler and the game is much more complex than what I predicted, then maybe you reach the opposite conclusion. So I can't assure you that the first one will get you higher marks/be easier to do except to offer you my thoughts. 

The purpose of IA is to evaluate your communication and application skills in math. Whether the results of IA be of personal use is entirely optional, and is not the same as personal engagement (p.e.). P.e. measures how active you are writing the exploration. P.e. is not usually affected by how relevant the results of the exploration impact you. Take a math exploration on area of a triangle: you can spend an entire page describing how important the formula bh/2 is to you, but if you just modified the derivation from a book, you haven't engaged a lot. On the contrary, if you don't really care about A = bh/2, but it's clear that you used a variety of experimentation, trial and error, or looking for patterns, then you will score well on p.e.

With that logic, you can't really tell if a topic can get you high p.e. marks, but in some instances you can tell if a topic makes it challenging to get them. For example, based on my interpretation of your second topic, it seems more difficult to score p.e. marks. Your first topic makes it possible for you to define your methodologies and your interactions with the exploration. 

[Erita]

Thank you very much for your help! I will probably stick with my first choice then