Deciding you EE research question - how much help can be taken?

[Work hard party harder]

Hey guys,

I'm doing my EE in Chemistry and I'm in a fiz because some of my friends have alot of help from other people. A friend of mine had the whole idea of her topic from a family member, I think. I don't know if that's fair. I just need you guys to tell me if I can take help from my EE guide for the basic topic or not. I mean, aren't you supposed to decide the basic topic on your own. How did you guys manage it. And any general advice on EE would really help too.

Thanks alot!

[Asheee]

Hey!

For my EE, which I did in Geography, I got my initial idea from the EE guide. I started off by researching into that but then I realised it was too difficult, so I had a read through my Geography Textbooks and had a look as to what interested me, and what could be well suited to my local area (as in Geography EEs, they prefer the essay to be on your local area).

I'd say, take ideas from the EE guide, but don't copy the topic word for word! It's okay to gain inspiration from anywhere really!

Good luck!

[Sandwich]

Technically you do have to pick it yourself, but of course inspiration can come from anywhere. You can't discount an idea simply because your friend gave it to you, or your family gave it to you. Your EE supervisor is not meant to give you a topic (although they can advise you as to whether they think it's sane or not! ), and it's not a good idea to get them to give you one too precisely because of course they ought to admit this in the Supervisor's Comments and it would knock marks off your essay. Plenty of supervisors do say things like "I think you should do a space-themed Physics EE because it's easy to gather data on" or that kind of thing, but still everybody ought to have to narrow it down and pick their own topic from there. The IB is never 100% fair across everything, but provided you don't get it off your Supervisor and they subsequently penalise you (or of course if you steal one of the exemplar topics!!), it doesn't matter where your topic came from. Some people find it much easier (and have strokes of fortune, like your friend!) than others, so it's not entirely fair, but hey, that's how it works!

I picked my topic a bit like Ashee did, by doing my research first and then deciding on a general topic. Actually I didn't finalise my topic (as in the exact title) until I'd finished my EE! You should do some research and see what interests you first if you're after topic inspiration. I know for sure I started out with a vague idea, started researching it and then completely changed what I was going to do because I found something much more interesting in the research A lot of it depends on what subject you're doing your EE in, but the more passionately you feel about your EE topic and the more interested you are in it, the better your EE turns out (as a general rule xP), so really the easiest way to get a good EE topic is to go from a point of interest.

[DJ CAS]

Choosing EE topics was crazy for me. I have had 7 topics over the past 6 months and I finally stuck to one. I am doing mine on Computer Science.

The best method, in my opinion, would be to look at the subject syllabus, find a topic area you really enjoy, research it further until you find something that you want to know (VERY IMPORTANT) more about and see if its feasible for an Extended Essay.