In a recent discussion about IA investigations I found myself defending the idea that we should encourage students to do an investigation which is suitably complex for IB Biology. The key question is, "Should we discourage students from over simplistic experiments?" If so, "Why? Where will they loose marks?"

An over simplistic experiment, in my view, is one that has no real purpose. The research question might be clear, but the answer to this question is self evident or pretty useless. Here are a couple of examples:

• Finding the osmotic potential of onion cells, with a RQ, 'what is the osmotic potential of an onion cell?'
• Investigating amylase using starch and iodine, RQ, 'what is the effect of temperature on amylase?"

What would be the consequence to a student who chose something really simple like this?

I looked through the OCC for supporting evidence and I estimated the maximum grades which would be possible for a very simple piece of work using an IA Investigation - marking sheet

In the frequently asked questions page on the OCC there are some useful responses.

• It is unlikely that investigation will be totally original, but the idea should be new to the student and not simply a copy of something that has already been done in class.
• Students can help each other, as an extra pair of hands but can't use the same data
• Investigations using simple familiar equipment is OK but not a simple expt design: "it is expected that the level of sophistication will be commensurate with diploma level science"
• teacher's must consult with students during the planning pocess to avoid investigations which collect no results, but a limited results set should not have a very negative impact on the student's mark.

The TSM of the OCC has some advice on the different strands of IA assessment from which I have summarised a few points below together with a comment about marking such an investigation. The Inthinking page links contain a short summary of each aspect of assessment of the Investigation.

Personal Engagement

The TSM states "The topic chosen should also be of suitable complexity. If the research question is very basic or the answer self-evident then there is little opportunity to gain full marks for exploration and analysis as the student will not have the opportunity to demonstrate his or her skills."

Exploration

Students must demonstrate the thinking behind their ideas using their subject knowledge. In order to demonstrate focus on the issues at hand.…data must be of sufficient quantity and treatable in an appropriate manner, so that it can generate a conclusion, in order to fulfill the criteria of analysis and evaluation.

An experiment which was too simple or superficial would limit marks in Exploration: the aspect “topic and research question” could not be more than 4, “background information provided” might be 4 and it would probably limit, “Appropriateness of the methodology” mark to 4. This might cap Exploration to a maximum possible mark of 4.

Analysis

If there is insufficient data then any treatment will be superficial - students should revisit the method before the analysis is arrived at. Alternatively, the use of databases or simulations to provide sufficient material for analysis could help in such situations.

Any treatment of the data must be appropriate to the focus of the investigation in an attempt to answer the research question.

An experiment which was too simple which didn’t have a focussed research question couldn’t really have raw data better than ‘relevant but incomplete’ = 4, Processing couldn’t be “appropriate and sufficient”. This might limit Analysis to <=4.

Evaluation

In the analysis, it may be concluded that there is a positive correlation between x and y; in the evaluation, the student is expected to decide, “Does the conclusion support the original thinking?”

An experiment which is too simple could not have a 4 mark conclusion “relevant to the research question” but it might have a good comparison to theory mark, and also for the strengths weaknesses and improvement suggestions. So evaluations marks would be less affected. Lets be generous and say 5 marks is possible.

Communication

This section is likely to be unaffected by the design of the experiment as it mainly depends on the formal presentation of the report

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So to answer the question, "How simple could an IA research question be?"

Yes quite simple if ...

If a student is struggling to achive a grade 4 then a safe simple experiment is a good idea, so long as it meets these criteria.

• The IA should be something new to the student, and not a repeat of something that has been done in class.
• It must collect data either from an experiment or a data base / simulation or both.

Using guessology (in the absence of data) a very simple IA investigation could achieve the following marks: perhaps grade 5.

1	3	3	5	3	15	63	5
Personal Engagement	Exploration	Analysis	Evaluation	Communication	TOTAL	%	Grade

Not too simple, it needs some complexity if ...

If students are aiming for higher grades then something more complex is necessary otherwise the student will not be able to achieve the higher grades in exploration analysis and evaluation for the reasons outlined above.

These investigations must have:

• a focussed research question which allows a conclusion
• sufficient data for analysis and enough to answer the research question
• a conclusion relevent to the research question.

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I'd be really keen to know what other IB teachers think? Please leave a comment below.