Arbau Posted February 2, 2020 Report Share Posted February 2, 2020 I have my first draft due in 2 days and my final draft for submission due in 6 days, I have only planned my essay, my essay question is: Are any essential amino acids deficient in a vegan diet? I have just read a thread which specifies NOT to do any group 4 essays without experiments, but, up to today, I have arranged my essay with my supervisor (who has never taught IB) to be literature-based, and I beleive it is too late to change that now; will that affect my grade? Also, I am vegan and was wondering if I take a blood test wether that can be used or identified as an experiment... What do you think? I would also greatly appreciate if anyone knows a place where I can find studies and researched carried out on my topic because there doesn't seem to be much on it.... Thank you very much!!! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChocolateAndVanilla Posted February 2, 2020 Report Share Posted February 2, 2020 I'm also doing my EE in Biology, so I have talked a lot with my teacher and got quite a lot information. Firstly, I think that your research question is quite good, however, it could be formed in a different way, to make it more open, starting with "how" or something like that, but it's not really necessary. Apart from that, I think it's better to carry out an experiment. In my class there are 12 people who are doing Bio EE and all of them carry out an experiment. If I understood correctly, you want to write an essay based on secondary data instead of primary, right? If you decide to make an experiment, you can try to actually check yourself the content of different food - some types of meat, some vegetables etc. and make such an experiment. If you want to make a blood test, you have to have at least 30 trials (30 different vegans) and there are some difficulties when the experiment involves people, but I'm not sure about this because my teacher discouraged us from carrying out an experiment involving people. Hope it helps! If you have other specific questions, feel free to ask 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arbau Posted February 2, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2020 5 hours ago, ChocolateAndVanilla said: I'm also doing my EE in Biology, so I have talked a lot with my teacher and got quite a lot information. Firstly, I think that your research question is quite good, however, it could be formed in a different way, to make it more open, starting with "how" or something like that, but it's not really necessary. Apart from that, I think it's better to carry out an experiment. In my class there are 12 people who are doing Bio EE and all of them carry out an experiment. If I understood correctly, you want to write an essay based on secondary data instead of primary, right? If you decide to make an experiment, you can try to actually check yourself the content of different food - some types of meat, some vegetables etc. and make such an experiment. If you want to make a blood test, you have to have at least 30 trials (30 different vegans) and there are some difficulties when the experiment involves people, but I'm not sure about this because my teacher discouraged us from carrying out an experiment involving people. Hope it helps! If you have other specific questions, feel free to ask Thank you very much! So you are suggesing for me to do what as an experiment? Checking the content of different foods (vegan and not) and from there concluding whether it is likely for vegans to have a deficiency? Eitherways wouldn't that be classed as secondary data as the contents of food would be found on the internet? I would think looking at my diet during a week and comparing it to that of a friend who is not vegan and from the contents seeing if either of us consumes less of some essential amino acid? Would that count as an experiment? Thanks again! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChocolateAndVanilla Posted February 2, 2020 Report Share Posted February 2, 2020 Yes, checking the content of different foods and maybe rephrasing theresearch question to make it more about the aminoacids contained in the vegan and non-vegan foods, because this one fits more to a secondary data investigation imo. Yes, if you find the contents on the internet, then it would be secondary data, but when I think of it as an EE, it could be too simple, and if you actually carry out the experiment, it "looks" way better. Otherwise, I would suggest adding something to the research question and then using the secondary data, like comparing more different contents, not only the amino acids. However, I would stick to the experiment and working on primary data, because Biology is an experimental subject and the experimental EE (same goes with IAs) tend to get better grades unless the secondary data-based EE is really revolutionary etc. I know there was a student in my school a few years ago who did a very good and detailed EE (for sure got an A) and she compared the content in foods (of some vitamins, I believe, but I'm not sure if anything more than them) based on the process they were prepared to eat - if they were raw, cooked, baked etc. So maybe you could do something similar, but comparing different foods eaten in vegan and non-vegan diet instead of different processes. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arbau Posted February 2, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2020 2 hours ago, ChocolateAndVanilla said: Yes, checking the content of different foods and maybe rephrasing theresearch question to make it more about the aminoacids contained in the vegan and non-vegan foods, because this one fits more to a secondary data investigation imo. Yes, if you find the contents on the internet, then it would be secondary data, but when I think of it as an EE, it could be too simple, and if you actually carry out the experiment, it "looks" way better. Otherwise, I would suggest adding something to the research question and then using the secondary data, like comparing more different contents, not only the amino acids. However, I would stick to the experiment and working on primary data, because Biology is an experimental subject and the experimental EE (same goes with IAs) tend to get better grades unless the secondary data-based EE is really revolutionary etc. I know there was a student in my school a few years ago who did a very good and detailed EE (for sure got an A) and she compared the content in foods (of some vitamins, I believe, but I'm not sure if anything more than them) based on the process they were prepared to eat - if they were raw, cooked, baked etc. So maybe you could do something similar, but comparing different foods eaten in vegan and non-vegan diet instead of different processes. Thanks again for your ideas, I will try and get a time extension to see if I can then carry out an experiment which I beleive to be the best option now. I'll keep you updated! 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sofiaxxxx Posted August 24, 2022 Report Share Posted August 24, 2022 Hi, I’m struggling with the evaluation of sources/ literary review part. Does anyone have tips to do this section? any help would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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