Chemistry and biology IAs

[Lara.z]

Ok, so here it is... basically, we're the first IB batch of the school, which means that everyone in my school is new to the system and all. I just started my second year and I realised that we're behind in many things... one of the things are the science IAs...

for chemistry, we've done a couple of practicals and submitted like two lab reports... but i'm sure we have to submit around 6-7... right? we've got like 4 to go... but when i read the assessment criteria and general info on science IAs i read that for HL 60 hours of labwork is required!! whoa!!!

As for bio... we've hardly done any IA work! i'm really worried! bio and chem are my HL subjects and im going pale as I type this. I also read this on some ib chem website: "the task given must not be proscriptive for the students.This means that opportunity to produce a research question must be placed in the hands of the students and not given to the students."

ok so far, we carry out the practical ourselves BUT the instructions are all given to us :-S. I'm worried because it seems that the IB puts a lot of emphasis on individual ideas. I mean at the end we all end up with very different lab reports but we all followed the same method, plan, variables and all...

Any advice? i mean... i know it's second year, but I can work on this from now to eliminate any more horrible things to come in the future :-S ... I just can't afford to srew up my science IAs! Advice needed please! what were/are science IAs like for u?

Edited August 27, 2009 by Mahuta ♥
Please trying writing in a more formal way, you DOONNNTTT NEEEEDDD TOOOO WRIIIITE LIKE THIIIIISSSSSSS!. Thanks- Maha

[Tilia]

for chemistry, we've done a couple of practicals and submitted like two lab reports... but i'm sure we have to submit around 6-7... right? we've got like 4 to go... but when i read the assessment criteria and general info on science IAs i read that for HL 60 hours of labwork is required!! whoa!!!

As for bio... we've hardly done any IA work! YES! i'm REALLLYYYY WORRIED! bio and chem are my HL subjects and im going pale as I type this. I also read this on some ib chem website: "the task given must not be proscriptive for the students.This means that opportunity to produce a research question must be placed in the hands of the students and not given to the students."

ok so far, we carry out the practical ourselves BUT the instructions are all given to us :-S. I'm worried because it seems that the IB puts a lot of emphasis on individual ideas. I mean at the end we all end up with very different lab reports but we all followed the same method, plan, variables and all...

Any advice? i mean... i know it's second year, but I can work on this from now to eliminate any more horrible things to come in the future :-S ... I just can't afford to srew up my science IAs! ADVIIIICEEE NEEEEEEEDED please! what were/are science IAs like for u?

Well, we didn't start with IAs in chemistry until the end of the first term and we've only done 1 assessed physics IA so far and there's only one more term to go, so calm down. You don't have to stress about it too much.

What you read on that chemistry web site seems more like an EE to me than an IA. You do get advice and instructions for the labs, believe me! Only for design labs, you are supposed to come up with an experiment yourself, but I'm sure your teacher will give you SOME kind of advice. For instance, when we had a design lab for chemistry we're supposed to measure the rate of reaction and we had talked about different techniques the class before, so it wasn't very hard.

I'm sure the subejct guides for sciences are to be found somewhere on this site, there you can find the assessment criteria and everything you need to know.

[Mahuta ♥]

Dont panic too much, but in the same time take it seriously. What we can do for you is give you suggestions and thoughts about your experiments. Make sure you work HARD for your practicals, but without panic obviously. At my school, the majority of the practicals were done in the second year. No one said you have to submit 6-7 you can submit just two and have them sent or even 15 and have the best two sent.

[Tilia]

No one said you have to submit 6-7 you can submit just two and have them sent or even 15 and have the best two sent.

But generally, the more the teacher lets you do, the better it is.

[master135]

OK there are 2 major problems here which can cause heavy moderation:

1) Possibly way too much info is being given in the instructions (If you give me an example then possibly I can tell you if it is more than there should be)

2) Your teacher wont be able to prove that the minimum number of lab hours have been completed.

Talk to your teacher and see if she is informed of what is required by IB.

Edited September 4, 2009 by master135

[Chelleee]

aha this sounds so much like my school! they did exactly the same thing!!

here's a brief outline of how our IA progress went:

1. end of IB1: # of chem pracs = 1, # of bio pracs = 1

2. term 3 of IB2: # of chem pracs = 1, # bio pracs = 2

this is when our teachers and coordinator started to freak out

we got told to conduct pracs during our own spare time because our teachers were already struggling to finish the syllabus on time (btw we only just finished learning the syllabus for BOTH sciences)

3. holidays in between term 3 and 4: conducted at home and wrote up bio prac #3, had to come to school for a Chem IA day

4. first week of term 4: this is how it went with my chem teacher - WELCOME BACK! IA RESULTS NEED TO BE SENT IN THIS FRIDAY SO YOU NEED TO HAND ME 2 DESIGNS (first ones we've ever done) AND 2 DCP&CE pracs (something that we've only ever attempted...once)

we JUST made it on time.

you don't need to submit 6-7 lab reports for each subject!

my portfolio for bio consisted of only TWO fully written lab reports (the one we did in IB1 didn't count since it wasn't even written according to the criteria)

for chem, i submitted a total of 4 pracs with two covering the design criteria (it was seriously just an intro + design) and another two covering DCP and 2CE

that was it.

as long as you have results for 2 designs, 2 DCP and 2CE = your portfolio is done

[laryxle]

We've done barely any pracs at all so far, not even IA ones. I know i'm only SL but we've done probably 6 or 7 pracs, and each one seems to be just on DCP and nothing else :/. We're doing all of our IA's next year except for G4, but i'm a little bit worried, because the Bio classes have done so many pracs already and so much more lab work than we have - I didn't realise there was a minimum amount of lab hours you had to have, i'm not sure if we'll get there. We seem to be doing the coursework very quickly (we'll be finished SL early next year), maybe we'll do labs then or something.

And our teacher isn't giving us any help at all; no directions on where to improve, on if we got things wrong or right. I hope that's good for moderation (our class is so small that everyone will be moderated).

[sarah935]

Uhm this might only be my case, but I just started IB 3 months ago, and I've done 9 pieces of biology practical work (around 6 hrs), plus 1 IA (and lots of practice IA's too).

I recorded every single experiment I did in class, even small 30-minute ones. I've also attended an out-of-school lecture about viruses, and apparently that also counts as practical hours.

Our teacher said we needed 60 hours of practical work to pass biology, so she's making us keep everything organised..

But I haven't done any practicals for chemistry, and we're going to start an IA next week..

I think the amount of practical work you do depends on what topic you're covering now?

Like in bio, if you're covering enzymes, you'd do loads of practicals then, to investigate what the effect of temperature or pH on enzymes are, for example..

[Mahuta ♥]

I don't get your question, but if it is the case that you're worried about the hours, then don't. We never kept count of the hours neither did we worry about not completing them because the teachers had a set scheduel to finish the 60 hours by time. Once again, I dont know if this was your 'question'?

[charco]

IBO:

For all Group IV subjects (HL) students are required to do 60 hours practical work spread out over the topics and course. This is clearly stated in the IB Group IV Guide.

If this requirement is not met the students will not be affected, only the school. If the school persistently fails to fulfill the IB requirements the school will be invited to leave.

The samples (not the whole class) for moderation must include at least two samples of

1. Design

2. Data collection and processing

3. Conclusion and evaluation

For each student chosen.

Your teacher is required to deliver the two BEST samples of appropriate work in each of these criteria. It is clearly in the interest of the students to do several pieces of work in each criteria to attain the highest grade possible.

In an earlier post it was mentioned that an IB website stated that no work can be prescribed. This applies to Design 100%, but also to things such as tables and graphs. The teacher must not provide any instructions regarding how to present or process the data, or error analysis. All work presented for moderation MUST by that of the student (and not his/her mates). If the IBO suspects any help, prescription or collaboration then the moderated sample, and hence the classes grades will suffer.