IA A detailed guide by criteria

[Drake Glau 438]

For the Math Studies IA the student is to pick 2 variables they believe are related to each other in some way and test this using statistical analysis calculations. You can literally pick any two variables. I for example chose how many hours people play video games on average per week and the amount of words they could remember in a 1 minute interval.

You want this to flow like a story, no one wants to grade something where you just throw numbers at them. Explain what they mean. Explain why you did this (I don't care if it's simply saying you simplified a fraction, do it). I'm not saying the graders suck at math, I'm saying that you don't know who's getting it so assume your grader is an idiot.

Here are the criterion and for each one I'm only going to post the most points possible because you want a 7...
Criterion A: Introduction
2 The student produces a title, a clear statement of the task and a clear description of the plan.
- Don't make a dumb title. Make it relate to your investigation. I should be able to read your title and know 3 things. Both of your variables and your guess on if they are related or not (gives drama to a math IA sort of...on a nerdy level).
- Your statement. It should be explicit. It should be clear. It should outline what you are going to do with the 200 numbers you a likely to collect. I should now know 4 things. Both of your variables, a small prediction, and the math you plan to do to it.
- Now to make the grader happy (happy grader=happier grading, yes it's bias but you might as well use it for your advantage ). Make an introduction. Make it like a story. Maybe there is a reason you chose these variables? Are you interested in something about them? If they are related to sports for example, did you pick them because you love that sport? Explain these things. Also you can give a brief explanation of WHY you think they should be related. You're testing this after all, always fun to start with a guess and be proved wrong

Criterion B: Information/measurement
3 The relevant information collected, or set of measurements generated by the student, is organized in a form appropriate for analysis and is sufficient in both quality and quantity.
- Alright, quantity. It's vague I know. Let me say this. Chi Squared test=100 data points. Just go get 100 sets of data and you're set.
- Put it in a chart for the love of god. A nice columned chart (if you are doing Pearson's/Linear Line of Regression you may also include the xy, x², y² and the averages/totals you will need later)
- Relevant information...if you stated your variable was flight distance, don't collect how far the car traveled...

Criterion C: Mathematical Processes
5 The student accurately carries out a number of relevant sophisticated processes.
- Simple and EASY 5 points. Do at least 2 calculations, do 3 even! Chi-Squared, Pearson's, Linear Regression Line. If you know how to do those 3 and do them correctly, perfectly, you just got yourself a free 5 points! DO IT

Criterion Interpretation of results
3 The student produces a comprehensive discussion of interpretations and conclusions that are consistent with the mathematical processes used.
- Don't be dumb. If your Chi-Squared value was way under your critical value, don't say your original hypothesis was right...because it wasn't.
- Draw conclusions using ALL the calculations you did. Maybe your chi-squared value says they have no relationship but just barely (just slightly below your critical value, very slightly) but your Pearson's value says there is absolutely no correlation between the points (this is a value between -0.3 and 0.3)
- Explain your interpretation. Some people may think that a correlation coefficient of 0.6 is pretty good but other's might think it's terrible. Relate the value to what you collected (this is why it says discuss), are there reasons that your value could be lower than what it should be? You can discuss (if this happens, I don't know if it's even possible) why your correlation coefficient suggests a decent relationship but your chi-squared test says there is none. Which one do you trust more? Etc...
- This is where math meets practicality. Be practical. Take the conclusion out of the number world and into the real world.

Criterion E: Validity
2 The student has made a serious attempt to comment on both the mathematical processes used and the interpretations/conclusions made.
- Why you used the math you did. How valid are the results from the math? did you do it by hand? Did you do it by a calculator? Did you do both to double check your work? Explain what you did to ensure that your math is perfect.

Criterion F: Structure and Communication
3 The student has produced a project that is well structured and communicated in a coherent manner.
- STORY. This needs to flow. I know it sounds weird, stories in a math class, but you can make a coherent IA. You did it for your group4 IA after all
- This is grading you on how you connected the math to the real world and how you communicated the numbers but as words and sentences.

Criterion G: Commitment
2 The student showed full commitment.
- How do you get these 2 points? Make an IA that LOOKS like it took more than 2 hours to make (you could BS data and do this in 2 hours, but you didn't, did you?). Things that show this are the collecting of 100 data points. Taking the time to make the story flow. Adding in background information in the introduction. Spell/grammar check the dang thing. If there are errors you obviously weren't committed enough to proofread...

If you have more questions or still don't understand something related to the IA itself feel free to ask. Any specific math questions (questions regarding Criterion C and involve numbers) should be asked in the Math Help Thread
Edit: I've continued to get messages regarding personal cases and, as much as I'd like to help, I do not check back here often. That being said - Send me a message with the understanding that you can't rely on my reply. Apologies.

Edited December 19, 2017 by Drake Glau

[Beata Cichocka 0]

Do you think a topic like “ To what extent are people capable of choosing truly random numbers” makes any sense? I was planning to ask people their genders, age groups , and a random number between 1 and 20 and see the results when compared to a random number generator. Can this score well?

[Drake Glau 438]

I don't see what you are testing...are you testing a person's age against the numbers they choose, or their gender, or what? You need two variables you think affect each other and test those. This isn't a "To what extent" type of question, that's for history and tok and stuff

[Dr. Polaris 5]

I only have 115 numbers for my project, will this be too few? I am testing memory vs gaming time (lol I swear i didn't read this before deciding the title), and i just went around and asked people.

How can i show this in my project? Like I really did get data and not just made the data up. taking photos will be impossible as I can't find the guys anymore since it's summer and I don't remember who i asked

[kim luffy 87]

i just switched to maths studies recently and i have no idea how this IA works. how do you formulate a question? what type of correlations can you make? i'm really confused

[halima 0]

i am thinking of 'temperature difference between inland and coastal cities' (if that title even makes sense)

so there are no two different variables...its just comparing temperature.

i thought i could use standard deviation and t-test. i guess i need one more formula?

what do you all think?

[Sabs44 19]

i am thinking of 'temperature difference between inland and coastal cities' (if that title even makes sense)

so there are no two different variables...its just comparing temperature.

i thought i could use standard deviation and t-test. i guess i need one more formula?

what do you all think?

At the same time for all cities? Just like pick a date and use some internet data? :/

[halima 0]

i am thinking of 'temperature difference between inland and coastal cities' (if that title even makes sense)

so there are no two different variables...its just comparing temperature.

i thought i could use standard deviation and t-test. i guess i need one more formula?

what do you all think?

At the same time for all cities? Just like pick a date and use some internet data? :/

yeah, two cities in my country. one coastal and one inland.

i have a record (from internet) of Jan-Dec.

not pick a date, but do it for one year...

im planning to do both for highest temp and lowest temp.

is that okay?

Edited December 8, 2011 by halima

[Sabs44 19]

i am thinking of 'temperature difference between inland and coastal cities' (if that title even makes sense)

so there are no two different variables...its just comparing temperature.

i thought i could use standard deviation and t-test. i guess i need one more formula?

what do you all think?

At the same time for all cities? Just like pick a date and use some internet data? :/

yeah, two cities in my country. one coastal and one inland.

i have a record (from internet) of Jan-Dec

im planning to do both for highest temp and lowest temp.

is that okay?

I don't know much about Math studies IA's... but this seems too small of a topic :/ anyone else know more about this?

[halima 0]

yeah, i need more advices!

[Shulkie 0]

I'm looking to do the probability of violent crimes vs. property crimes in a small college town/large college town/big city. Any suggestions?

[Drake Glau 438]

Shy away from the word probability to start.

Sounds like you want to test whether or not one type of crime is more prone to occur in a specific environment, right?

In this case I would try to collect data about how many violent/property crimes occur in some random town/city and then also collect the population of the city. When you have all this you can begin to compare and possibly find a correlation between a cities population and the types of crimes that occur there.

Eventually this would provide evidence behind whether or not large towns are are more prone to whichever crime but would not be able to provide actual numbers to form a probability.

[xsamdabrax 0]

around how many words should the analysis/ validity section be?

[Drake Glau 438]

There is no word count or approximate word count. If you can do it in 300, go for it, if you need 1000, go for it. Make sure it is concise and not redundant but make sure you fill in any holes.

[JessicaK 1]

Since calculating Pearson's involves calculating standard deviation, does that count as two sophisticated mathematical processes?

[Guest The Guardian of Asgard]

I'm a May 2012 candidate is it safe to reveal my title?

Any idea how I should frame mine: Investigating the relationship between hand eye co-ordination and the subjects score in physics

Edited February 11, 2012 by The Guardian of Asgard

[Drake Glau 438]

Since calculating Pearson's involves calculating standard deviation, does that count as two sophisticated mathematical processes?

No, STDev isn't "sophisticated" in my opinion. But if you do a pearson's you kind of NEED a linear regression line...so there's two

I'm a May 2012 candidate is it safe to reveal my title?

Any idea how I should frame mine: Investigating the relationship between hand eye co-ordination and the subjects score in physics

Title is fine, you can even post your variables and the calculations you might be doing. Just don't post the whole thing

You're going to need to quantify "hand eye coordination", the physics scores are easy since they're already numbers and have a set range of 0-100% (or whatever your min/max are)

[Guest Jar Jar D'oh!]

Yeah, but I think the title is a bit stupid...hmm, anyone, opinion?

[kala 0]

I think it's okay, it would be really interesting to read if i was an examinator:) The topic's not boring or predictable, so I guess it's good. I'm trying to come up with something creative for my Math Project, but.. huh, I think during those 2 years I used up all my creativity when i had to think of essays' topics/presentations' topics/other stuff

[ItsSabrinaHey 1]

My SL Math Studies teacher has given our class 2 weeks (more like one week and 3 days) to do our IA, and I'm bad at math. I don't understand; I'm SOOOOO CONFUSEDDDDDDD.