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IB Biology SL IA ideas!


nicolech00

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I need some help looking for some Ib Biology SL IA topics... To be honest i don't know where to start from so I just wanted to ask you for some suggestions about how should i start or what should i start looking for.

 

I just need some suggestions or ideas so I can start looking up some ideas and formulate my questions :)

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@inriya HI!!! topics as in something i have done in bio? we have only done until chapter 2 (chapter 1 is cell biology and chapter 2 is molecular biology) and we are working on chapter 3 (genetics). the reason why i find it hard to look for a topic or question is that I like photosynthesis or enzyme  reaction labs because they are easier and straight forward.  however, since this is our IA i did want to do something different, something interesting and not just look at factors that affect rates of photosynthesis, because those are just too simple. i would like to find something that you can see in the real world and for example, have a research done on something big and make a smaller and simpler replication of it in my IA and talk about how through that experiment i found that and whatever i am supposed to find out. i don't know if you understand what i am looking for... and this is why i find it very difficult to find a good topic.

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3 hours ago, nicolech00 said:

@inriya HI!!! topics as in something i have done in bio? we have only done until chapter 2 (chapter 1 is cell biology and chapter 2 is molecular biology) and we are working on chapter 3 (genetics). the reason why i find it hard to look for a topic or question is that I like photosynthesis or enzyme  reaction labs because they are easier and straight forward.  however, since this is our IA i did want to do something different, something interesting and not just look at factors that affect rates of photosynthesis, because those are just too simple. i would like to find something that you can see in the real world and for example, have a research done on something big and make a smaller and simpler replication of it in my IA and talk about how through that experiment i found that and whatever i am supposed to find out. i don't know if you understand what i am looking for... and this is why i find it very difficult to find a good topic.

I understand it is very hard to find a good topic. For me, I found a very straightforward topic and transform it into what I am interested in. E.g: Factors of enzyme rate -> Factors of affecting food enzymes in different factors of pH in digestive system. 

Chapter 1 and 2 do not really have very interesting topics indeed (in my personal view). 

Edited by inriya
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@inriya yeah there are not a lot of interesting topics in Chapters 1 and 2. So far, nothing really interests me that much. I think I will end up doing either photosynthesis or enzyme rates and maye talk about juice production or something like that. I think I will do what you told me about choosing something simple and transforming it into something more interesting. Do you think that would be easier? Because what I actually wanted to do was the opposite. Find something really interesting and use that as my background and out of that try to do a much simpler replicate of an experiment that shows what I talked in my abstract. But, I guess I am going to have to do more research...  Thanks anyways! I will tell you when I find something interesting...

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3 hours ago, nicolech00 said:

@inriya yeah there are not a lot of interesting topics in Chapters 1 and 2. So far, nothing really interests me that much. I think I will end up doing either photosynthesis or enzyme rates and maye talk about juice production or something like that. I think I will do what you told me about choosing something simple and transforming it into something more interesting. Do you think that would be easier? Because what I actually wanted to do was the opposite. Find something really interesting and use that as my background and out of that try to do a much simpler replicate of an experiment that shows what I talked in my abstract. But, I guess I am going to have to do more research...  Thanks anyways! I will tell you when I find something interesting...

That was my way of finding my own Bio IA. However, I am not sure if your method is easier. 

Hope your Bio IA will go well! 

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  • 4 weeks later...

@inriya  Hi! I think I finally got a reserach question. It is not well worded, but this is it: What is the effect of competitive inhibition and  noncompetitive inhibitor on different organisms such  as yeast and plant catalase? I think the problem would be.... what inhibitor? I am still finding it hard..

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On 26/3/2017 at 9:49 PM, nicolech00 said:

@inriya  Hi! I think I finally got a reserach question. It is not well worded, but this is it: What is the effect of competitive inhibition and  noncompetitive inhibitor on different organisms such  as yeast and plant catalase? I think the problem would be.... what inhibitor? I am still finding it hard..

Well, to know what a competitive inhibitor or non-competitive inhibitor is for those particular catalases you would need to look into the biochemistry of the enzyme itself. AKA Research. I don't even know if there are any common inhibitors for those enzymes. See, competitive inhibitors are those that compete with the substrate to occupy the active site of the enzyme. On the other hand, non-competitive inhibitors will usually act either on an allosteric site of the enzyme (if I'm not mistaken) or on the enzyme-substrate complex itself to prevent it from separating. 

I think you should a little bit into competitive inhibition and non-competitive inhibition experiments that are done in biochemistry to get experimental results and get your possible "materials" from there.

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@MainRostand  Hi! I think I decided to research copper sulfate and how it affects the rate of catalase activity. I thought that this would be a much easier experiment to do and I could relate it to many other things. I am still looking for experiments that I can do to test this. (Some sort of experiment that will let me measure amount of oxygen produced, but I am still not sure where to look for that). Thanks for the help and the information!!

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 4/4/2017 at 0:24 PM, nicolech00 said:

@MainRostand  Hi! I think I decided to research copper sulfate and how it affects the rate of catalase activity. I thought that this would be a much easier experiment to do and I could relate it to many other things. I am still looking for experiments that I can do to test this. (Some sort of experiment that will let me measure amount of oxygen produced, but I am still not sure where to look for that). Thanks for the help and the information!!

I know that copper, being a transition metal, usually speeds up the rate of a reaction (at least inorganic ones). But in the case of a biological catalyst, like catalase, are you sure that it has an effect? If it does, then great. By the way, what will be your independent variable there, because it seems like just comparing the reaction with and without CuSO4 will give you little data to discuss later. 

Measuring the amount of oxygen produced can be done by making the reaction take place inside of a sealed beaker with a hole connecting it to a syringe (or inverted measuring cylinder inside of water) with a hose. This way you can measure the volume of oxygen produced as the time goes by and graph these curves. 

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5 hours ago, MainRostand said:

I know that copper, being a transition metal, usually speeds up the rate of a reaction (at least inorganic ones). But in the case of a biological catalyst, like catalase, are you sure that it has an effect? If it does, then great. By the way, what will be your independent variable there, because it seems like just comparing the reaction with and without CuSO4 will give you little data to discuss later. 

Measuring the amount of oxygen produced can be done by making the reaction take place inside of a sealed beaker with a hole connecting it to a syringe (or inverted measuring cylinder inside of water) with a hose. This way you can measure the volume of oxygen produced as the time goes by and graph these curves. 

This is very useful information... I might really have to consider what you just told me, thanks a lot! I am trying to use a kale leaf with catalase for my experiment but I am not sure if copper sulphate will work with this, I will have to ask my teacher or even do an experiment myself to see if this works. If this doesn't work, I have to look for more inhibitors for catalase.. :(

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  • 1 month later...
On 2017-4-15 at 1:29 AM, nicolech00 said:

This is very useful information... I might really have to consider what you just told me, thanks a lot! I am trying to use a kale leaf with catalase for my experiment but I am not sure if copper sulphate will work with this, I will have to ask my teacher or even do an experiment myself to see if this works. If this doesn't work, I have to look for more inhibitors for catalase.. :(

Well, just try to look for information that gives you a lot of quantitative data for you to comment on. Good raw data that you can process and make into graphs is the basis for any good discussion and, overall, good IAs, in my humble opinion :) 

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23 minutes ago, MainRostand said:

Well, just try to look for information that gives you a lot of quantitative data for you to comment on. Good raw data that you can process and make into graphs is the basis for any good discussion and, overall, good IAs, in my humble opinion :) 

Yeah I already chose a question and I'm working on it. Thanks!!

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