Biology Extended Essay- Microbiology

[hilaryjroberts]

I want to do my biology extended essay in microbiology but I need help coming up with a more specific topic/ research question! I have access to a small lab, so something I could experiment with, without needing complicated machinery and microscopes.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

[Sarah1]

Can you post what you've been thinking of? I mean, what's your not-specific research question?

After all, this site isn't to give you the topic, it's to suggest things to help you narrow down a topic you already have.

[hilaryjroberts]

I was thinking of doing something involving testing different kinds of cleaning solutions to test their effectiveness on a certain surface

[Sandwich]

I was thinking of doing something involving testing different kinds of cleaning solutions to test their effectiveness on a certain surface

This is a relatively standard IB EE thing for Biology. Not very original but there's no reason why it shouldn't score well if you can deliver a good EE. The obvious next step is: find a bacterium. Find the chemical agent. Decide how you're going to measure it and what aspect of the experiment you're going to vary and why that might work.

Ask your Supervisor about what sorts of bacteria they can obtain for you as a school and also to make sure that whatever you order isn't going to be harmful to people. The IB for understandable reasons require that you don't use any bacteria which can be pathogenic for humans. After that, the whole idea of the EE is to do your research, so this is the bit where you yourself will have to look into what might affect said bacteria and why. Then the experiment is really just to test something where from your research you're already confident it might happen. That's the idea of research, really

The EE is basically the first time you've got to really do the leg work yourself. If you get stuck or need any advice, feel free to ask here.

[hilaryjroberts]

I was thinking of doing something involving testing different kinds of cleaning solutions to test their effectiveness on a certain surface

This is a relatively standard IB EE thing for Biology. Not very original but there's no reason why it shouldn't score well if you can deliver a good EE. The obvious next step is: find a bacterium. Find the chemical agent. Decide how you're going to measure it and what aspect of the experiment you're going to vary and why that might work.

Ask your Supervisor about what sorts of bacteria they can obtain for you as a school and also to make sure that whatever you order isn't going to be harmful to people. The IB for understandable reasons require that you don't use any bacteria which can be pathogenic for humans. After that, the whole idea of the EE is to do your research, so this is the bit where you yourself will have to look into what might affect said bacteria and why. Then the experiment is really just to test something where from your research you're already confident it might happen. That's the idea of research, really

The EE is basically the first time you've got to really do the leg work yourself. If you get stuck or need any advice, feel free to ask here.

Thanks for the advice!

I have decided to test the effectiveness of various organic and manufactured cleaning agents on litter obtained from a poultry barn. This is a big issue for many poultry farmers because it is so important for them to keep the mortality rate low, therefore they need to use the most effective and safe cleaning agents.

So I think my next step will be to form my hypothesis and execute the experiment... Any comments or suggestions on this idea?