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The Internal Assessment, known as the "IA", is an important part of the Standard Level Chemistry course. The IA evaluates skills that a paper-based exam can not. This lab-to-end-all-labs is worth a whopping 20% of your final grade in chemistry, so it is important to take this seriously and not blow it off. You will have to combine a lot of your knowledge of chemistry with your practical lab skills you have gained throughout the course from past labs and demonstrations to investigate/explore and topic of your choosing. Though it may seem daunting, the IA is definitely doable if approached correctly.
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Planning
Planning is one of the most important things to producing a high-scoring IA. This is not the kind of assignment that you can make up as you go. This is because you are the one who has to decide what to do. It is up to the student to choose a topic that is relevant to the course material, but it can be a Standard Level (SL) or Higher Level (HL) topic. Also, your topic has to be complex enough to do a thorough-enough investigation according to IB's standards, meaning that you can not take an easy way out. Many topics involve examining the effect of "x" upon "y", which sometimes is sufficient but often needs more meat to it. Choosing a topic that interests you makes the experience more enjoyable. Thinking up a satisfactory idea may be difficult. This document has many ideas that could inspire you while this document has a lot of possible investigations. Note that these documents are not guaranteed to be ideal topics since they may be too simple and require further evaluation or we do not have the materials necessary. This planning sheet is good for initial brainstorming and idea formation. Keep in mind that no two students can do the same IA topic, so claim it in advance or plan to change enough about your experiment to have it be considered different enough.
The chemistry IA is considerably more difficult than other IAs (math, English, etc.) because many things can and will go wrong. Many people have had to completely restart their experiment in the limited amount of time allotted due to errors in planning. Getting your procedures down early can make your practical work go along smoothly in the future. This planning sheet is more in depth than the previous one and contains information on various forms of analysis that you can do during your experiment. Take note of what chemicals and materials you will need so you can find or get more if needed.
The chemistry IA is considerably more difficult than other IAs (math, English, etc.) because many things can and will go wrong. Many people have had to completely restart their experiment in the limited amount of time allotted due to errors in planning. Getting your procedures down early can make your practical work go along smoothly in the future. This planning sheet is more in depth than the previous one and contains information on various forms of analysis that you can do during your experiment. Take note of what chemicals and materials you will need so you can find or get more if needed.
Practical Work
Practical work refers to the experimental lab component of the IA. This is from where the meat of your IA is sourced as your data that you will analyze will be gathered by yourself. It is important to do these steps correctly because errors in your procedures could force you to restart your experiment or give you inaccurate data. However. restarting is not the end of the world and happens to many students during IA season. Procedures should be clear and precise. This document contains many sample labs, some of which may be similar to yours. so you can adapt their procedures. When doing your experiment, do not waste time as it is very limited and precious, but do not go too fast as you could make mistakes, spill chemicals, or break expensive materials. Pay attention to safety: be careful with concentrated acids and bases, keep dangerous fumes in the fume hood, watch out for burners and exothermic reactions, and wear protective glasses and gloves.
This guide to practical work outlines many of the main skills you will need to know in order to come up with successful procedures and results in data analysis, including significant figures, errors, uncertainties, and various forms of analysis (e.g. titrations). Looking back on the procedures of previous labs can help with doing this lab. It is helpful to keep track of what materials you use, their uncertainties, your various calculations or concentrations and much more in your daybook. This makes it easier to recall this knowledge when writing up your report and keeps things organized.
This guide to practical work outlines many of the main skills you will need to know in order to come up with successful procedures and results in data analysis, including significant figures, errors, uncertainties, and various forms of analysis (e.g. titrations). Looking back on the procedures of previous labs can help with doing this lab. It is helpful to keep track of what materials you use, their uncertainties, your various calculations or concentrations and much more in your daybook. This makes it easier to recall this knowledge when writing up your report and keeps things organized.
Proofing
The write-up is the product that you are ultimately judged by. If you have been organized throughout the experiment and use your daybook wisely, it will just be a matter of following the format. It is recommended to write up the IA as you go to save you from rushing it all to completion at the end. You will have only one opportunity for feedback from Mr. Hunter, as he looks at your rough draft and can give you nonspecific feedback and identify general areas of improvement. He is unable to point out specific flaws. Therefore, it is advisable to do as much self correction before you use up your opportunity with Mr. Hunter by evaluating yourself using the score sheet. This will make it so that Mr. Hunter has an easier time grading your IA and he might spot smaller mistakes that would have been hidden by more obvious mistakes. After that, the final draft is turned in and graded by Mr. Hunter. He will score them all but IB will only look at a handful of randomly selected IAs to see if they agree with his scores and will shift everyone's points accordingly. The chemistry class of 2016/17 received this feedback from IB. Learn from these mistakes and feedback to maximize your score.