IA BEST GUIDE Biology

[IB123321]

This guide comes from the website excellentassessment.com where step-by-step IA guide is published and IB experts help with IAs. This is a trial version only (and I received agreement to publish it) but still there are many very useful information.

Choosing topic:

It is very important to choose the right topic (and then research question) of the Internal Assessment. Students are advised to familiarize with the marking criteria at this stage since the topic can be considered as good when it allows student to easily gain the highest score. For example it must enable students to collect sufficient qualitative as well as quantitative data, to support conclusions by available bibliography etc. [...]

Common mistake is choosing too broad or too narrow topic. If it is too broad you would not be able to discuss and justify a detailed conclusion and additionally lose evaluation points. If it too narrow you wouldn’t be able to collect a range of data (quantitative and qualitative) and you may lose analysis points or your assessment may be too short and instead you may discuss irrelevant data (whole analysis should aim at answering the research question). [...]

 

Full version includes:

-        Choosing an excellent topic - step-by-step guide & checklist

-        Example topics of Internal Assessments which received the highest marks

-    Structure of the Internal Assessment - to save students' time, not to miss important details as well as useful tips to get all marking points from each section

 

Personal engagement:

In this section you should demonstrate that you are particularly interested in the topic you have chosen. It is the best to show why YOU are interested, not only that it is worthy of investigation. 

Common mistake is to show personal engagement solely in the introduction. There are certain points where personal engagement should be shown to gain all the marks. [...]

 

More important aspects:

-        how to show personal engagement

-        section in which you show personal engagement

-        how much focus should be put on that to gain all points

 

Exploration:

Regardless the topic of the Internal Assessment, the moderators search for certain aspects in the exploration. For example, the full list of variables affecting the investigation must be considered. They can be divided into:

-        dependent [...]

-        independent [...]

-        controlled [...]

-        uncontrolled [...]

It is a good idea to put them into a table. [...]

Choose the variables from the following list of variables and write them in the assessment: [...]

 

Analysis:

Uncertainties should be considered at each stage of the Internal Assessment.

For example, if your balance has an accuracy [±0.01kg] your answers numerical values concerning weight should be given in the following way: 1.30±0.01kg. Common mistakes include:

-        1.30 kg (without the uncertainty)

-        1.3±0.01kg (lack of ‘0’)

It is recommended to use dots (‘.’) instead of commas (‘,’). Check if it is correct on your graphs. [...]

At the very end use them to show the total uncertainty of obtained results using following formula: [...]

 

Evaluation:

Evaluation should discuss strengths as well as weaknesses of the Internal Assessment. Common mistake is omitting strengths. Another error is not considering all of the vital weakness of the investigation or lack of sufficient development of students’ ideas. Excellent evaluations should focus on both systematic and random errors. [...]

Additionally areas for improvement should be described and justified according to the strict principle [...]

Make use of the following list of errors (already divided into systematic and random) [...]

 

Literature

Conclusion and evaluation should be supported by literature. [...]

Some students write bibliography/footnotes on their own whereas there are programs which can create it according to the quoting style recommended by IB [...]

 

More important aspects:

-        how to find bibliography?

-        what literature is relevant?

-        how many sources you should use to receive the highest grade?

-        footnotes and bibliography – requirements