Biology Extended Essay Banned Topics.

[mayalevi]

I'm frantically trying to search for a human biology based RQ and my teacher said that the IB does not want us to use Bodily Fluids (I was going to do something with a urine-based experiment), can anyone help me out by letting me know how certain this is and what are the specific restrictions. Are we allowed to use blood? I need to know all the banned topics/experiments in Biology that are not included in the IB guide so that I can find a valid RQ.

Edited November 4, 2013 by mayalevi

[susanne]

you could try a simulation based thing; i.e. how does the concentration of X affects Y

Well, there isn't really specifically banned experiments/topics; there are usually a way around it, but some are just harder than others

and no, no blood. That's definitely NOT allowed (i reckon, and your school wouldn't be too happy about it either)

[Sandwich]

Body fluids are excluded due to infection risk. Blood is potentially an infection risk and also requires sticking a needle in another person which is a big IB no.

Basically anything which:

1) risks infection of any kind - introducing it into a person, catching it yourself, growing bacteria which may contain types potentially harmful to people

2) causes harm, suffering etc. to another person or animal - and the IB definition of harm/suffering extends to almost anything you might want to do to a person or animal, so the best way to check that it's okay is to get your IB Co-ordinator/Biology teacher to contact them directly and verify whether it's acceptable or not

...both of those are out. The closest you can get are more like behavioural/non-interventional studies on humans, provided you go through a long spiel of gaining ethical consent and the whole thing is 100% harmless. Like you could make people exercise and drink coffee, but you couldn't give them a drug or tablet out of the ordinary. Coffee, tea and lifestyle stuff = fine, anything sounding potentially scary = bad juju.

Basically doing experiments in human biology is a fairly limited area for EEs.