Estimated completion time: 1-3 hours. Do not rush this task. It is vital that you select a problem question that is actually “doable” for an IA. If you rush this task, you will be wasting your time and need to complete it again anyway. Do a thorough, good job in the first place.
Before you select a problem question, spend some time thinking about what you would like to investigate.
Read the overview about the Internal Assessment (click links within the page for additional information)
Think about what you would like to investigate:
✅ Choose a topic that is interesting to you; you’ll be working on this for a long time!). Think about issues your family deals with; maybe there are personal reasons why a topic might interest you.
✅ Flip through a textbook for inspiration.
✅ Think about lab skills you’ve already learned and could use to answer a new research question.
✅ Ask for specialized equipment
✅ View the list of possible databases or simulations.
✅ View the list of past problem questions by topic.
✅ Make sure you can collect sufficient data to do some sort of statistical analysis
Watch out for common mistakes
❌ Not collecting enough data or having a large enough sample size
❌ Designing too simple or too complex an experiment
❌ Repeating an experiment we’ve already completed in class
❌ Wanting to do an experiment that another
❌ Not following bacteria guidelines
❌ Ignoring human and animal experimentation guidelines (read the IB Animal Experimentation policy
and see a sample informed consent form)
To select your problem question, you will answer the following questions:
Which IB TOPIC or OPTION do you want to investigate in your internal assessment? For example, topic 1: cell biology
Are you going to do a: (select one)
A controlled experiment with manipulated and responding variables
A descriptive analysis of an ecological field site
Database analysis
Simulation analysis
If you are doing a database or simulation, provide a link to the dataset or simulation you will be using. Keep in mind, you must analyze raw data sets, not data that has already been processed.
What variable(s) are you going to manipulate, change or correlate?
What responding variable are you going to measure? The responding variable must relate to a biological function, process or function.
What is your proposed research question? Good research questions are very focused; try to narrow the question down to the exact relationship you are trying to explore.
Comparative study:
“Is there a difference in _____(RV)________ between ________(MV)___________ in the ___(place)___________ during the ___(time)________?”
“Is there an effect of ______(MV)__________ on _______(RV)___________ in ___(place/organism)_____ during the ___(time/phenomena)________?”
Correlative study:
“Is there a correlation between _____(biotic)________ and ___(biotic)______ in the ___(place)___________ during the ___(time)________?”
“Is there a correlation between ____(biotic)_________ and ___(abiotic)________ in the___(place)___________ during the ___(time)________?”
“Is there an association between ____(biotic)_________ and ___(abiotic)___________ in the ___(place)___________ during the ___(time)________?”
“Is there an association between ____(biotic)_________ and _____(biotic)_________ in the ___(place)___________ during the ___(time)________?”
Write 3-5 sentences explaining why you gravitated towards this topic. Why does this topic or investigation interest you? What motivated you to select this research question? Does your research relate to a scientific process that impacts your daily life? Why is this a scientifically interesting question? Why are you curious about this? Does it relate to your life outside of school? Future career path? Don’t make something up!
What’s Next?
The next task for the Internal Assessment will be to do some background research about your topic and investigative method.