Biology and ESS
For Biology and Environmental Systems and Societies Discussions
1,490 topics in this forum
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I've been struggling for about a month now to pick the topic for my first bio IA. My topics have been limited because I've heard that we have to do an IA on something we've already covered in class (is this true?). At length, I've come up with an idea I feel pretty good about, though the concept seems rather basic: I'll obtain 15 ducklings, and separate them out into groups of 5. For four or five days, I'll feed them a diet that's slightly lower in either fat, protein, or starch (not too much lower–can't be violating the experimentation policy). After those days, I'll give them an option of two different foods they haven't seen before, one that's high in what they've been…
Last reply by whatislife, -
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Hi guys, So I have an inexperienced Biology teacher who has never really taught us how to write a good Biology IA before. He's cool and all that, but he's quite a disorganised teacher who doesn't like lab reports (we've done some but he doesn't really mark any of them). I guess I'm okay with lab reports, I can write decent ones, but for Biology IA since I'm gonna be assessed on them, I'd have to do way better right? So a couple days ago we were given our first Biology IA task and asked to write up a lab report, which will be marked and put as our first IA report. I'm really worried. I've never practised on following the IB criterias before. If this is my first time doing …
Last reply by whatislife, -
can somebody please suggest 3-4 topics for ess internal assessments ?
Last reply by ib_13, -
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So for our design lab, our teacher has been telling us to do something about "factors that affect photosynthesis" (if I'm not mistaken, we don't have a sheet or anything yet, she just gave us a really quick heads up.) So I was thinking of manipulating the wavelenghts of light using coloured plastic. I'll have a plant and a small beaker of water underneath a bell jar, or overturned beaker, with the plastic covering it. After a while I'll be measuring the the pH change of the water, to see if it's more acidic or basic by then, and tie it back to how much CO2 was used / O2 was released. I'm not sure how else to check the pH aside from with a pH probe? And I'm not really sure…
Last reply by MainRostand, -
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Hi everyone, I'm going to do my ee in Biology and i'm not sure about my topic yet. I was thinking to maybe do it on enzymes in the digestive system for example (lactase) but i'm not so sure on my topic. So if anyone has suggestions I would really appreciate it!
Last reply by Agnieszka1, -
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I did 4 lab reports and none of them are good my grades arent good on them and the teacher didnt explain how to write one and i tried the posts here to help me but i cant seem to write a good one what od i do
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I uploaded the table as Workbook3.xlsx. Feel free to go through it. My research question is how pH affects the time taken for the seeds to germinate. I assigned 3 petri dishes for each pH value, each petri dish consist of 10 seeds, which is 30 in total. So all the numbers listed above are the number of seeds germinated, out of 30. My teacher told us it's not possible to measure the length of the plumule, so i'm using days in reference to my data. According to the guideline, i have to process in "some way", e.g. Mean, %, Transforming time to rate, Standard Deviation, T-test, % error, %Difference between observed and expected results. But my table does not translate to any…
Last reply by MainRostand, -
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ANyone here doing EE biology and taking biology HL ? could you share you RQ? mine : "How effective is biodetergent as an alternative fertilizer on balsam plant?
Last reply by mizwar, -
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Which one is simpler to understand and will be the most helpful on my IB Biology Exam? Pearson Baccalaureate or the IB Course Companion from Oxford?
Last reply by ibsurvivor2014, -
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So, I got my Biology IA grade yesterday, and it was extremely unfair! Normally, on my paper 1, 2 and three, it get a 6 or 7, and that is what i predict I also got at the exam. But then I got my IA back, and it was like 22/48!!! I know it is worth more, because I helped some friends with theirs, and they got in the 30's. Some where made in groups, and they were in the 30's as well. My teacher graded my IA's before I handed them in, and they all got 6s and 7s. This is so weird! Is there anything I could do? I hope it is a mistake, but he does not answer my emails! The is very unorganised, and lost all IA's in February, and I sent him them all. What would you do? And yes, I …
Last reply by Thomas Jensen, -
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Hey all, I am a first year IB student enrolling in DP1. However, I am terrible with Biology lab reports. Especially in comprasion with last year, I am getting 2's and 3's and Ive never been taught how to structure/write one. I am doing my last one for this year and I needed some help with this lab on catalase and hydrogen peroxide decomposition. Any possibility that any of you guys could give me link me or something to an already done IB lab report on this specific topic with good marks so I can learn from it? P.S what would be more helpful is someone could look over my lab? Need urgent help, please help me out.. I want to excel in IB but these Ia's are weighing me d…
Last reply by Player, -
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So im doing a Design practical about Food Preservation for our Option F, but i need an idea how to solve the following issue: (Topic: Investigate a factor affecting food preservation) -If i take sugar as the factor (and for example changing the concentration), how would i know when it would help food preservation more? So: How do i measure the ''preservation'', by changing the factor (e.g. sugar)? [The main thing with sugars and salts is that they basically stop micro-organisms from living in that environment.] Update: I figured that i might check the CO2 gas production: if the microbes can survive in the sugary environment, they will start to ferment the sugar, producin…
Last reply by ib1123, -
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Good luck everyone! Don't forget to check your answers!
Last reply by Khoi Dao, -
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Hey guys. So for paper 2 for biology, its an essay. Often on the markschemes examiners use, they put a lot more points that what the question is actually worth. For example, a question worth 8 marks can have like 12 points on the markscheme. So for the essay question part thats 8 marks, say you hit 8 points on their markscheme, but you also add in two or three points that are completely wrong. Do you still get 8 marks for the 8 points you correctly wrote or do you get deducted marks for saying some incorrect ideas? Would saying incorrect stuff affect the quality mark for clarity? Thanks
Last reply by Dan123456, -
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Hey everyone, I've been pretty unlucky, I was studying with a friend last week and he accidentally took some past papers which I've had examples of. Does anyone have any idea where I could find some past paper 2's for ess? I have been looking but can only find one that is a little bit recent, from 2010! Thanks for the help! Hope everyone felt good about paper 1
Last reply by Gaby, -
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So, my final exams are in May and I have been revising but now it's exactly a month and I was wondering if anyone has any tips or revision methods they do with a month left? I have no idea where to start. Please help!
Last reply by J500, -
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Any Predictions for paper 2 section B questions?
Last reply by Sharmi, -
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How did ESS Paper 1 go?
Last reply by alefal, -
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Hi guys, We just did this experiment: A yeast-glucose-ethanol mix was put in a flask and that flask was put in hot water. Then a pipe went from the flask to a burette with water in another water bath. We then had to measure the volume change in burette that the yeast respiration caused. The ethanol strength changed each time I have now my DC: Start and end volume (e.g 50-48.8 ml at 5%/10%/15% ethanol strength)Difference ( e.g. 1.2 ml)My DP: Mean differenceThe teacher wasn't specific about what to put in the DP and I feel I am missing something. My question: Is my data processing complete? Or do I still need to do something except the graphs? thanks
Last reply by Tombak, -
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Hey Guys, I was just reviewing the November 2010 ESS paper 2, but I'm having issues with some of the questions which hopefully you can help me with. I checked the markscheme but I'm still not sure how to structure my answers. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance! Section A Q1 e) With reference to Figure 8, explain why researchers examined economic and cultural factors as well as ecological factors when they measured the “restoration potential” for Plains bison herds in different locations. Section B Q5 b) Explain how K-strategies and r-strategies are linked to succession. [6] c) Population dynamics can be defined as, ''the study of changes and the r…
Last reply by LoujainQuba, -
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What is the difference between paper 1 and paper 2 in environmental systems and societies? I've tried looking online but I can't seem to find it, and according to my teacher they have recently changed the format. Thank you.
Last reply by nadeendakwar, -
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When I answer secton B I normally write it like a "story" and I try to connect all the 3 questions together whenever possible. However I was told that IB prefers it simple and often bulletpoints are preferred. I asked my teacher which is best to write for the extra style points but as she is not an IB-teacher she had no clue. Does anyone know how one should answer the questions in order to recieve the style points/extra points?
Last reply by Kokoriko, -
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Im doing biology HL, however, we are very late in the progress. My teacher is not an ib teacher, yet, teaches us SL first then we will move on to the HL. Do I self study HL alongside the SL so that I can do well in the exams? If so, any recommended resources or study tips. Thank you IB family.
Last reply by risinglady, -
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Hey so my biology sl exam is in a little more than a week, but i am having trouble deciding which options are the easiest to study. I did options A and C with my class but I feel like option C is really hard...does anyone know which two options are the easiest to do for paper 3? If anyone from previous years can help me out too that would be great. Thanks.
Last reply by DropBoite, -
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As all of you who are taking Environmental Systems and Societies know, the exam is coming up soon. My teacher still has two units to get through. What should I do? The only "review time" we are getting is on random nights, and I cannot go to the study sessions because of other things I have planned (stupid CAS...). I can study by myself, but there are some things I do not fully understand. Also, there are some things we haven't talked about! Thanks to all who respond, Roxy
Last reply by modern.rocky, -
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Hi guys!! I have an important question (I couldnt find the answer elsewhere) how many marks (not the percentage) do we need on paper 1, paper 2 and paper 3 of IB biology SL to get a 6 ? Or a 7? Thanks a lot!!!
Last reply by iamyourmum, -
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For my Biology IAs, I often get marked down in the evaluation section. I wrote down a number of improvements such as increasing the number of trials, decreasing the percentage error, etc. Even though they are considered as valid by my teacher, the marks aren't as good as I expected. What sort of improvements should I write down for my evaluation? I really want to improve my IAs. Thanks!
Last reply by Thrashmaster, -
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Hi We are doing our lab on plants transpiration rate , our group has wind , what are the constant in this lab ?
Last reply by bellaupward, -
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Hello all! I was active here back in 2012 and now I'm back because I've got to study the IB syllabus for my entrance exams to Uni. I'm applying after 2 gap years that I took for personal reason and now I find that I hardly remember anything. Does anyone know any good resources for a crash course in biology (unpaid) because most of my time will be spent on chemistry but I don't want to get too over-confident about Bio. Thankyou! Have a good day!
Last reply by DropBoite, -
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Hello everyone! For anyone in ESS, I was wondering what case studies I should study for? Everything in the text book or? Thank you in advance! All the best to everyone studying for 2014 exams
Last reply by lilymcd, -
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Hey guys, I was just wondering if I am doing a biology design lab and I am changing the concentration of the solution. Will I need to do calculations in order to tell the amount of water I will need to dilute from the stock solution? As I am always told off by my biology teacher that I am constantly using chemistry's lab method to do bios Thanks so much!
Last reply by trishreddy, -
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I am doing biology hl. I am dying cuz there is a lot to memorise for HL students.... I only went through 1/3 of the syllabus and found that I can't even remember the stuff i revised last week:( Any tipssss??? Thank you.
Last reply by Kat_emu, -
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Hi guys ! So I have this crazy idea of doing my Biology IA (Full Investigation) about the effect of pH level on lactose intolerance. Or as an alternative, I would like to pick the effect of temperature on cell division. Which one should I do ? Can the answer be "none" ? Would the lab design be too hard or time staking ? What do you advise ? Thank you for showing the kindness of trying to answer my questions. Have a nice survival, brothers and sisters
Last reply by Koreahj, -
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So our class did an experiment on finding the time taken for triphenyl tetrazolium chloride mixed with a yeast solution to turn pink. The aim of the experiment was to find how long it took each solution to turn pink at different temperatures. So all the raw data is in 2 decimal places so e.g. 9023.79 seconds. I know that the average also has to be in the same number of decimal places e.g. 9044.87. But then here's the problem, we were also asked to include RATE in our processed data, however the rate is as small as 0.000111 - which is smaller than two decimal places. So, what i'm trying to ask is that what am i supposed to do? If I round the rates all to 0 and state that t…
Last reply by AndovarEdoras, -
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Hi, I was wondering if you guys could help me by giving me some ideas on some experiments I could do. I have to do an IA on an environmental factor that will affect a physiological process. Ex: Caffeine on heart rate If you guys could please give me some ideas, and ones that don't ask for too many expensive materials. Thanks
Last reply by Your Favorite Survivor, -
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Hello, I was wondering how to draw a diagram of a peptide bond between two amino acids. I got confused because different sources show different structures. I checked bio ninja and the oxford book for biology and they both have different versions. I appreciate any help you could give me. Thank you in advance.
Last reply by IBwanting2survive, -
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So my class is a bit behind when it comes to bio assessed pracs, we have only done about 2 dcpce pracs by the end of ib1 but one was pretty much a failure (photosynthesis).... i want some ideas to suggest to the teacher.. something that actually works for dcp.. Writing from a tablet so nevermind any grammar errors.
Last reply by Klauu, -
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I was wondering which topics are 8 marker ones that most probably will come in the Paper 2 essays. For instance, respiration, photosynthesis, DNA replication, transcription, translation...
Last reply by Pripri, -
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I studied bio a lot but for some reasons, i just cant have the right words to say when it comes to bio.. should i memorize the markscheme? thing is i understand everything but i cant express it into words.. exams is near and im scared.. im doing SL btw and i need>6
Last reply by Sandwich, -
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I am having a hard time writing a good and complete Biology Lab Report /IA and I want to ask for some help on this matter... I believe I have the basic structure: Introduction/Background, Aim, Hypothesis, Materials, Procedure, Raw data, Processed data, Conclusion, Evaluation. However I am bad at writing good hypothesises, conclusions and evaluations and I don't know what the IB wants to hear. Any advice? Useful links? Example? I am in my first year and I'm taking Bio SL but I stubble every time we get assigned a new IA so I really want to turn it around and get really good at writing them. Thanks in advance
Last reply by Simmo2108, -
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I've desperately searched everywhere for an idea for a biology IA idea, but every question I've seen so far has been about plants/ecology but that isn't an option for me. Could I get some help? I'd like to get started asap but I'm completely clueless where I should get started. Allowed topics: Water, Macromolecules, Cells, Cellular respiration, gas exchange and the transport system.
Last reply by Emmi, -
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Hey. I am desperate, I need your help. I have a lab report due tomorrow and still haven't decided if this is a good research question. Or does it sound to overdone? any suggestions? Feel free to criticize me What is the effect of changing the concentration of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in the solution of saccharomyces cerevisiae and glucose on the rate of alcoholic fermentation as shown by the production of by-product, Carbon Dioxide, and displacement of water in a 100.00 cm3 measuring cylinder after 240.00 seconds? THANK YOU:)))
Last reply by Elisabed Gedevanishvili, -
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Hi everyone! This may be a totally stupid question, and I think I already know the answer to it. BUT I thought it would be best to check: obviously the syllabus for 2014 is already a couple of years old, and some of the information is a bit out of date. In such instances, I'm supposed to follow the mark scheme to gain marks instead of what is now accepted as the correct knowledge, right? It seems obvious to go with the mark scheme on this one, but a large part of me feels very wrong at writing what I know is false information on my exam papers, should this come up, so I wanted some backup on this one! Thank you!
Last reply by Sandwich, -
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Hi! I'm doing bio SL and we're now doing a lab report on our second design lab. My lab was investigating the effect of pH in the water source of sunflowers on their lengthwise growth and I think i got decent results but now I'm having trouble creating a graph in which the data would be portrayed accurately.. I first constructed a bar graph (attached), but my teacher commented "Why this style of graph?", "Error bars?" and "see DCP3" so I figured that maybe a clustered column graph with the pH levels as the x-axis and 5 columns in a cluster wasn't the right graph to contruct.. But I can't really figure out what I should do instead then, as excel seems to mess up the error …
Last reply by Marleyton, -
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So my AP Biology teacher is running IA labs for students. I asked if I would do them next year, since I was in HL, and the somewhat ambiguous answer was "Well, you can do it now." Does that mean I have to do my IAs this year, as a junior, even though I am taking HL exams?
Last reply by Lynxarin, -
I'm going to be taking the exams in May 2015. My biology teacher is pretty new to the IB system and she overheard some other teachers talking about that there will be changes in the biology curriculum next year. Will that affect the class of 2015 or not? Because if yes then we'll have to buy new books and I'm really worried that we won't have time to go through every topic. Thanks
Last reply by Sandwich, -
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Hello, In my extended essay, I measured hair diameter with diffraction, and now I need to do the IA lab with the same topic. It it possible to have lab work done in EE to be same to some extent? EE research was about difference in diameter between people suffering from hair loss and IA LAB research is about difference in diameter of hair between young and old people. Anyone? And one more question: first IA was about heart beat rate, can I do second one on the same topic? but with different factors. e.g First one is how different exercises affect heart beat rate and second is about how temperature affects heart beat rate.
Last reply by citizenoftheuniverse, -
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Guys I need help with making my research question goal: the goal of the lab is to investigate how plants respond to an external stimulus. Guys help me......it's my first IA
Last reply by Marleyton, -
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So, I need to do a lab report for next week. My teacher advised me to do it based on a data based. We did a lab with a database long time ago and I do not remember how to work with it. Does anyone have any suggestions? I would also want to have my lab in the topics of Homeostasis, Option G Ecology. This lab is very important because we might send it to IBO. Thanks in advance!
Last reply by khimberleigh, -
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I am writing my first Biology IA and I am not sure if my question is good enough or too elementary? How does change in temperature affect bean plants' rate of photosynthesis? Please help!
Last reply by citizenoftheuniverse,
