IA Geography IA Help

[Mich Page]

Hey,

I'm really trying to get a 7 on my Geography IA, as Geography is my best and favourite subject and I don't want a mediocre grade to affect that. Can anyone give me some tips as what to do and not to do? And anywhere I can find an actual rubric that I can print out?

Cheers.

[epaps7]

The geography IA should be based primarily on primary data, so you will need to go (presumably with your class) and collect the data yourself. My class did our IA in the option topic urban environments so we went into the CBD of my city and collected all sorts of data about urban land use and urban stress and took photos and did pedestrian counts and bi-polar analysis etc. the method of collecting data obviously depends on the topic your class is doing the IA in.

you need a tightly focused research question which will guide your whole investigation. My teacher made us come up with two hypotheses closely linked to this research question and these would form the body of the IA.

In your introduction, you need to provide a good quality locational map (you can source from google maps or other similar sites but you must edit them with annotations etc. and of course cite where you got the base map from) and give some background to the geographical location of the investigation. If you do an urban environments IA you should give information on the size of the city, how old it is and perhaps the structure of the CBD. You also need to explain your hypotheses briefly and justify them with theory. Aim for about 300 words for this section.

Your methodology should be quite impersonal and explicit. focus only on how the data was collected. You can refer to maps if necessary to show where data collection took place. Aim for 300 words for here too.

Your findings and analysis are the main body of the IA and you should spend the most time on this section! Depending on your research question and hypotheses you can make graphs, annotated maps and any other kind of data representation to aid you in your analysis. Photos are good to add in too to provide visual information (be sure to annotate key features of these). Make sure you refer to all maps and graphs and photos within your analysis, so they are an integral part that complement your findings, not just random images that fill in space. This section should be about 1300-1350 words!

The conclusion should be particularly brief and sum up your findings in regard to your research question. Don't introduce any new information here. Aim for about 200 words - try to write close to 100 words for each hypothesis if you take that approach.

The evaluation should focus on the limitations and potential improvements of the methods of data collection. I think a good way of doing this is looking at each data collection method and then identifying a limitation of that, and then a potential improvement to counter that limitation. Try and get at least a few limitations for each method but of course depends on how comprehensive a method is or how limited. Aim for 300 words here.

Other things that will ensure you get good marks:

• make sure it's within the word limit (2500 words)
• reference all sources (you shouldn't have too many as the IA focuses primarily on primary data)
• number all pages!
• have a title page with your research question clearly stated, your IB number and name
• label all photos and maps etc. with annotations - they're really helpful if you're running out of words!! (annotations count towards word count if they're over 10 words so be brief)

I finished my geography IA a few weeks ago and I left it really late so it was pretty stressful but ultimately quite satisfying!! good luck!!

[flinquinnster]

Assessment rubric is in the syllabus, but unfortunately it is quite lengthy and not nicely formatted. I don't have a nice rubric either, but it really shouldn't matter

In terms of tips, frankly, I am really just tired of my Geography IA right now. I can't think of a good focused topic that I like for more than a week. Based on my experience, my advice to you is to really think about the methodology you use to collect your results, and whether they are meaningful. For example, your sample sizes, the types of questionnaires you give, whether the conclusions you draw are too generalised. Make sure the premise of your investigation is robust, otherwise you'll start writing it and questioning the validity of your results (like I did/am doing). And make sure you think of a topic early that you like, and don't procrastinate!

I'm finding this website quite useful. Lots of information and a break-down of what to do. Fellow geography student, I wish you the best of luck