IB Physics IA (Internal Assessment)
It is time to begin your IA! This is your chance to experience experimental work first hand, completing an individual investigation of interest to you!
Step 1: Designate a specific location for your notes, outlines, ideas, references, previous practice IAs, and handouts. This could be a folder, or section in a 3-ring binder. Organization is crucial !!
Step 2: Study the Oxford text section in Internal Assessment on
pages 687-692.
Step 3: See Oxford page iii to familiarize yourself with all of the Topics of Study (Topics 1-12, and Option D). Your investigation might be related to a topic we have not yet studied in class. This would require a fair amount of independent study!
Step 4: Study the Annotated Example IA Papers (see our class website for the numbered example papers). These will help you determine what type of investigation (see Oxford p. 690) you may want to do. Studying each example along with the IB Examiner’s remarks will also help you determine what makes an investigation particularly weak or strong. (PE = Personal Engagement,
EX = Exploration, C = Communication, A = Analysis,
EV = Evaluation) Full Examiner Marks Awarded with Comments also available on our website.
· Traditional hands-on experimental work
o Example 2 (Fair 16/24) – “Investigating the lift force of a toy helicopter”
o Example 6 (Strong 22/24) – “Physical and Mathematical Models of the Greenhouse Effect” (Also includes the use of computer simulations)
o Example 7 (Weak 13/24) – “Exploring the relationship between the pressure of the ball and coefficient of restitution”
o Example 8 (Strong 24/24) – “The exponential nature of a bouncing ping-pong ball”
o Example 9 (Fair 17/24) – “Investigation of water depth pressure”
o Example 10 (Weak 11/24) – “How temperature affects the vibration rate of a tuning fork”
· Database investigations
o Example 1 (Strong 24/24) - “The real and apparent positions of the stars in Orion – a physics exploration using online database.”
o Example 5 (Weak 13/24) – “Determining solar characteristics using planetary data”
· Spreadsheet
o I do not have examples available.
· Simulation
o Example 3 (Strong 23/24) – “Obtaining Wien’s displacement law of electromagnetic radiation”
o Example 4 (Weak 12/24) – “Investigating the force on an electric charge moving through a magnetic field.”
Step 5: Familiarize yourself with the format of scientific academic papers.
See “Links to help with your IA” on our class website in the IA section.
You can also browse scientific papers using ProQuest, etc.
NOTE: An Abstract is optional. A clearly focused RESEARCH QUESTION is required. A sample format similar to those described in the reference links on the class website is on the last page of this packet.
More on the format of your report: “There is no official format for the IA report. However, the student should produce a logical and concise report with a justified approach, meaning that the student should explain why and what they have done. Research and the scientific context of the student’s investigation are important aspects of the IA and must be included in the report, as the report is written for science teachers, fundamental details are not required. There should not be any superfluous material in the report.
The final report must be an electronic document. This is to be a single document, with data, graphs and charts, pictures, references, etc. A selection of student lab reports will be submitted to the IB for moderation, which will be done electronically.
The proposal can be written in future tense, as the student is planning to perform the investigation. The final IA should be written in the past tense. This is because the work has been completed and the student is reporting what they did. The student should avoid pronouns and should spell out the nouns referred to. The IB’s policy on academic honesty requires students to reference all sources of information, including pictures, graphs or charts, or web sites used. An appropriate, standardized and consistent style is required here (MLA format).
The report should be 6-12 pages. These are single-sided pages, preferably with double or one-and-one-half line spacing between lines. Students must strive to be concise, and any report over 12 pages will be penalized under the Communications criterion. The maximum length of 12 pages includes all references, footnotes, charts and tables, pictures or images. “ Excerpts from the Oxford University Press IB Physics Online KerboodleTM
Step 6: Selecting a possible topic and formulating a focused research
question.
This step will take some time, “Exploration”, and consideration. “Personal Engagement” is a must! A great deal of time may be spent researching topics, outlining and conducting “trial” investigations, etc.
For your consideration, here is a list of VernierTM sensors available for weekend checkout for home use.
Force Photogate timer
Motion Gas pressure
Microphone Spectrophotometer
Light Magnetic Field
Temperature Voltage Probe
Anemometer
Note that, if interested, you can download Logger Pro 3 to your home computer to utilize the data and graphical analysis features. More info on that is available. Just ask.
Step 7: Complete your Proposal and submit it to your teacher on or before Wednesday, April 22nd. Your teacher will make a copy of your proposal and return your original.
Step 8: Upon approval of your Proposal, you can go ahead with your investigation! It is expected that your data collection be completed by the end of August, 2015. That will be right before the start of your second year of IB Physics.
Step 9: Submit your complete draft of your IA on or before Friday, October 2nd, 2015.
Step 10: You will have a scheduled, brief conference with your teacher during class, at which time you will obtain feedback on your draft.
Step 11: FINAL DRAFT DUE MONDAY,
DECEMBER 7th 2015 (1 Hard copy, plus one submitted to Turnitin.com)
Title
Introduction (context)
Question
· What the student hopes to find out
· Why the student was interested in this particular question
· Hypothesis and explanation
Methodology
· Materials
· Steps
· Labeled diagram or photo
· Safety/ethical/environmental considerations
Results
· Raw Data
· Processed Data, Annotated
· Interpretation of Processed Data
· Impact of measurement uncertainty
Conclusion
· Answer to research question
· Comparison to accepted scientific context
· Strengths and weaknesses of the investigation
· Suggestions to improve, extend
IB Physics IA Timeline:
Exploration phase and Proposal preparation : mid-February – April 22nd 2015
Data Collection: mid-May – end of August 2015
Generating your first complete draft: end of August – October 2nd 2015
Generating your final draft: end of October – December 7th 2015
Final paper submitted in hard copy form and to Turnitin.com on or before December 7th 2015
Turnitin codes To Be Announced