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IA topics - need help!


M25

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Hello! Could anyone be so kind to tell me is the statistics a good topic for math sl internal assessment? I want to investigate a person's BMI over time, but I think it is too easy for standard level. What do you think?

Edited by IC25
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Personally I can't see how you would make it "yours" so as to say. Seems to me you're just plugging in a formula. My teacher told us that we need to do something like make a formula, or adjust it for our needs to ensure that it becomes a better investigation. Just my two cents. Though I suppose it could work if you like I don't know, made a formula of something?

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I think the best way to make the IA yours is to do heaps of research. For example, for my HL IA I wanted to do GPS trilateration. So naturally, I derived all the equations I wanted to use by myself. However I knew that wasn't enough personal input. What I realised - after doing a heap of research, is that I'm treating what is essentially a non-Euclidian system as a Euclidian system, which then gave me the idea of developing my own three-dimensional coordinate system. I then assessed the weaknesses and limitations of my system, and tried them out with real places (it worked correct to 5cm!).

 

With the BMI, maybe work out a way to devise your own model of the BMI, or try to find issues with it and solve it. I personally think there are better things to do a maths IA on which will allow for far more personal input. Check out this link here for some inspiration: https://www.scribd.com/doc/239605515/200-Ideas-Exploration Statistics is great for IAs, as it allows for you to collect your own data and analyse it etc. Take a look at my link and perhaps you might be able to find a more suitable topic :)

 

I hope I helped a bit!

Edited by El :3
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I agree, the internal assessment can be confusing, particularly with mathematics. My teacher didn't even give me any info on it and I had to rely on the IB website. Basically, you have to explore some mathematical concept, make conjectures, question what you're doing, and analyse it. You need to make it yours, so add in as much personal input as possible, and somehow relate it back to your life (at least, this is what I could gather by reading exemplars). There's plenty of exemplars on the IB website, which really helped in giving me insight as to how to go about writing the IA.

 

I guess finding a good topic takes time. I knew instantly that I wanted to do GPS because it heavily ties in with one of my biggest passions - physics. Unfortunately, I can't help much with finding a topic, because after all it's your IA, not mine, but I wish you the best of luck! I'd reccommend looking at the IB mathematics info as a good starting place - there's heaps of stuff on the internet. :)

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I'm gonna try to find a way of going out of this struggle with internal assessment. Maybe I'll discover something throughout the examples at ib math info or this link you shared in a previous post. Thank you so much, at least you tried to help me. I appreciate it! ☺

Edited by IC25
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  • 5 years later...
On 9/7/2015 at 11:21 PM, El :3 said:

I think the best way to make the IA yours is to do heaps of research. For example, for my HL IA I wanted to do GPS trilateration. So naturally, I derived all the equations I wanted to use by myself. However I knew that wasn't enough personal input. What I realised - after doing a heap of research, is that I'm treating what is essentially a non-Euclidian system as a Euclidian system, which then gave me the idea of developing my own three-dimensional coordinate system. I then assessed the weaknesses and limitations of my system, and tried them out with real places (it worked correct to 5cm!).

 

With the BMI, maybe work out a way to devise your own model of the BMI, or try to find issues with it and solve it. I personally think there are better things to do a maths IA on which will allow for far more personal input. Check out this link here for some inspiration: https://www.scribd.com/doc/239605515/200-Ideas-Exploration Statistics is great for IAs, as it allows for you to collect your own data and analyse it etc. Take a look at my link and perhaps you might be able to find a more suitable topic :)

 

I hope I helped a bit!

I'm thinking of doing a HL IA similar to yours. Could I ask what you got for it?

 

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