IB Chemistry Internal Assessment

Individual Investigation

1. Purpose of Internal Assessment

Internal assessment is an integral part of the course and is compulsory for both SL and HL
students. It enables students to demonstrate the application of their skills and knowledge,
and to pursue their personal interests, without the time limitations and other constraints that
are associated with written examinations. The internal assessment should, as far as possible,
be woven into normal classroom teaching and not be a separate activity conducted after a
course has been taught.

The internal assessment requirements are the same for biology, chemistry and physics. The
internal assessment, worth 20% of the final assessment, consists of one scientific
investigation. The individual investigation should cover a topic that is commensurate with the
level of the course of study.

Student work is internally assessed by the teacher and externally moderated by the IB. The
performance in internal assessment at both SL and HL is marked against common assessment
criteria, with a total mark out of 24.

2. General Questions to Consider

A. Why are you conducting this investigation? (Personal Engagement)
B. What are you going to test either through experimentation or a model?
C. How will you collect data and what data will you collect?
D. What conclusion will you come to? (What is your hypothesis?)

In addition to the criteria outlined in the rubric, you will also be evaluated through discussions
with respect to the originality of your investigation. You will have discussions with me after
break to work through logistics of your investigation. At the very end you will submit a hard
copy for grading.

3. Guidance and Authenticity

The work submitted for internal assessment must be the student’s own work. However, it is
not the intention that students should decide upon a title or topic and be left to work on the
internal assessment component without any further support from the teacher. The teacher
should play an important role during both the planning stage and the period when the
student is working on the internally assessed work. It is the responsibility of the teacher to
ensure that students are familiar with:

• the requirements of the type of work to be internally assessed

• the IB animal experimentation policy

IB Chemistry 12 (HL) Internal Assessment

 • the assessment criteria—students must understand that the work submitted for
assessment must address these criteria effectively.

Teachers and students must discuss the internally assessed work. Students should be
encouraged to initiate discussions with the teacher to obtain advice and information, and
students must not be penalized for seeking guidance. As part of the learning process,
teachers should read and give advice to students on one draft of the work. The teacher
should provide oral or written advice on how the work could be improved, but not edit the
draft. The next version handed to the teacher must be the final version for submission.

It is the responsibility of teachers to ensure that all students understand the basic meaning
and significance of concepts that relate to academic honesty, especially authenticity and
intellectual property. Teachers must ensure that all student work for assessment is prepared
according to the requirements and must explain clearly to students that the internally
assessed work must be entirely their own. Where collaboration between students is
permitted, it must be clear to all students what the difference is between collaboration and
collusion.

All work submitted to the IB for moderation or assessment must be authenticated by a

teacher, and must not include any known instances of suspected or confirmed academic
misconduct. Each student must confirm that the work is his or her authentic work and
constitutes the final version of that work. Once a student has officially submitted the final
version of the work it cannot be retracted. The requirement to confirm the authenticity of
work applies to the work of all students, not just the sample work that will be submitted to
the IB for the purpose of moderation.

Authenticity may be checked by discussion with the student on the content of the work, and
scrutiny of one or more of the following:

• the student’s initial proposal

• the first draft of the written work
• the references cited
• the style of writing compared with work known to be that of the student
• the analysis of the work by a web-based plagiarism detection service such as http:/
www.turnitin.com.

The same piece of work cannot be submitted to meet the requirements of both the internal
assessment and the extended essay.

IB Chemistry 12 (HL) Internal Assessment

4. Guidance for the use of the internal assessment criteria
The internally assessed component of the course is divided into five sections.
• Personal engagement
• Exploration
• Analysis
• Evaluation
• Communication

Each section aims to assess a different aspect of the student’s research abilities. The sections
are differently weighted to emphasize the relative contribution of each aspect to the overall
quality of the investigation. As the investigations, and therefore the approaches to the
investigation, will be specific to each student, the marking criteria are not designed to be a
tick-chart markscheme and each section is meant to be seen within the context of the whole.
As such, a certain degree of interpretation is inevitable. The following tips are designed to
help focus on the intention of each section, rather than be seen as a definitive approach.

Personal engagement
The emphasis within this section is on individuality and creativity within the investigation. The
question to ask is, has the chosen research question been devised as a result of the personal
experience of the student? The question could be a result of observations made in the
student’s own environment or ideas that the student has had as the result of learning, reading
or experimenting in class. The investigation does not have to be ground-breaking research,
but there should be an indication that independent thought has been put into the choice of
topic, the method of inquiry and the presentation of the findings. 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
The issue here is the overall methodology. Students need to take their individual ideas and
translate them into a workable method. Students must also demonstrate the thinking behind
their ideas using their subject knowledge. The information given must be targeted at the
problem rather than being a general account of the topic matter, in order to demonstrate
focus on the issues at hand.

What needs to be seen is a precise line of investigation that can be assessed using scientific
protocols. It is then expected that the student gives the necessary details of the method in
terms of variables, controls and the nature of the data that is to be generated. This 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. If the method devised

IB Chemistry 12 (HL) Internal Assessment

does not lead to sufficient and appropriate data, this will lead to the student being penalized
in subsequent sections where this becomes the crux of the assessment.

Health and safety is a key consideration in experimental work and forms part of a good
method. If the student is working with animals or tissue, it is reasonable to expect there to be
evidence that the guidelines for the use of animals in IB World Schools have been read and
adhered to. The use of human subjects in experiments is also covered by this policy. If the
student is working with chemicals, some explanation of safe handling and disposal would be
expected. Full awareness is when all potential hazards have been identified, with a brief
outline given as to how they will be addressed. It is only acceptable for there to be no
evidence of a risk assessment if the investigation is evidently risk-free—such as in
investigations where a database or simulation has been used to generate the data.

Analysis
At the root of this section is the data generated and how it is processed. If there is insufficient
data then any treatment will be superficial. It is hoped that a student would recognize such a
lack and 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. The conclusions drawn must be based on the evidence
obtained from the data rather than on assumptions. Given the scope of the internal
assessment and the time allocated, it is more than likely that variability in the data will lead to
a tentative conclusion. This should be recognized and the extent of the variability considered.
The variability should be demonstrated and explained and its impact on the conclusion fully
acknowledged. It is important to note that, in this criterion, the word “conclusion” refers to a
deduction based on direct interpretation of the data, which is based on asking questions such
as: What does the graph show? Does any statistical test used support the conclusion?

Evaluation
Although it may appear that the student is asked to repeat the analysis of the data and the
drawing of a conclusion again in the evaluation, the focus is different. Once again the data
and conclusion come under scrutiny but, in the evaluation, the conclusion is placed into the
context of the research question. So, 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 put this
conclusion into the context of the original aim. In other words, does the conclusion support
the student’s original thinking in the topic? If not, a consideration of why it does not will lead
into an evaluation of the limitations of the method and suggestions as to how the method
and approach could be adjusted to generate data that could help draw a firmer conclusion.

IB Chemistry 12 (HL) Internal Assessment

Variability of the data may well be mentioned again in the evaluation as this provides
evidence for the reliability of the conclusion. This will also lead into an assessment of the
limitations of the method. It is the focus on the limitations that is at issue in the evaluation,
rather than a reiteration that there is variability.

Communication
The marking points for communication take the entire write-up into consideration. If a report
is clearly written and logically presented there should be no need for the teacher to re-read it.
The information and explanations should be targeted at the question in hand rather than
being a general exposition of the subject area; in other words, the report should be focused.
The vocabulary should be subject-specific and of a quality appropriate to diploma level. The
subject-specific conventions that can be expected are the correct formats for graph and
tables and cell headings, correct use of units and the recording of errors. This is not to say
that the presentation needs to be faultless to gain full marks. Minor errors are acceptable as
long as they do not have a significant bearing on understanding or the interpretation of the
results.

IB Chemistry 12 (HL) Internal Assessment