IB Environmental Systems and Societies - Internal Assessment Checklist

Sections marked * may not be relevant to all IAs.

Section Description   
Context Establish and explore a local or environmental issue for investigation
Introduction Discuss a relevant environmental issue (local or global) that provides a clear context for the
research question.
Research State a relevant, coherent and focussed research question.
Question
Hypothesis A justified prediction as to what you think will happen. I.e. What will happen and why?
*Location A brief description of the location.
Planning Develop a method and justify it, whilst considering safety and ethics.
*Variables Describe the independent (the one you change), dependant (the one you measure), and
control (the ones you keep the same) variables. You should also explain why you have
controlled these factors.
*Equipment Detailed list of all equipment you use. This may not be relevant to you if you have collected
secondary data.
Method Design a repeatable method appropriate to the research question that allows for the
collection of sufficient of relevant data. If you are collecting secondary data you may need
to describe the method used by the original author, or you need to clearly describe how
you sourced the data.
Justification Explain why have used the methods you have chosen. This is particularly relevant when
discussing sampling methods. I.e. Why did you choose to sample 50 people?
Safety Assess any risks associated to your method. Drawn as a table with the following headings:
Hazard, Risk, Control Measure
Ethics Assess any potential ethical issues. Even if you have no ethical issues, say this.
Results, Present, analyse and draw conclusions from your results.
Analysis and
Conclusion
Table Present your results in a clear table (you may want to include means), ensure decimal
points are consistent.
Graphs Present your data in graphs/diagrams what help the reader see any trends or patterns.
Make sure they have titles and labelled axis.
Calculations You will need to calculate means with standard deviations and conduct an appropriate stats
test. T-test if comparing two means, ANOVA is more than two. Correlation tests if you are
seeing how one variable affects another.
Conclusion State a clear conclusion from your data and reference the data you used to come to that
conclusion. Might include some explanation of results or anomalies in this section.
Discussion Discuss the conclusion in context to the environmental issue.
And
Evaluation
Discussion Look at your conclusion and link it to the environmental issue. What do your results mean
and why are they important. Link to others findings, do your results match what others
have found?
Evaluations and Strengths, weaknesses and limitations of the method used. (Don’t be too harsh on yourself,
Improvements if there are that many errors in your method why did you use it in the first place). What was
the impact of your weakness and how could you fix these problems. Do weaknesses as a
table with the following headings: Weakness, Impact, Modification.
Future In order to understand your environmental issue more what other research, related to your
Research research could you do. Are there gaps in our understanding that need to be filled? I.e.
would it be useful to collect data from an LEDC too, or another river, etc.
Applications How do your outcomes link to the broader environmental issues you identified?
Solution Suggest one solution to the problem/issue you have studied.
Evaluate Explain whether this solution would be effective, must strengths and weaknesses, weight
solution these up.
Communication – there are 3 marks available for presenting your IA in a way that supports effective communication.
Be logical and systematic, use page numbers, and reference your work clearly. WORD COUNTS MUST BE 1500-2250