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You must research some aspect for your project. This is how you will learn what success criteria you should choose to evaluate your product. Plus, research is one of the ways you will meet your Learning Goals.
You must research some aspect for your project. This is how you will learn what success criteria you should choose to evaluate your product. Plus, research is one of the ways you will meet your Learning Goals.
In addition, you might choose Media Literacy Skills or Information Literacy Skills as one of the ATLs applied to your Learning or Product Goal.
In addition, you might choose Media Literacy Skills or Information Literacy Skills as one of the ATLs applied to your Learning or Product Goal.
Use this page for helpful hints and resources in that process.
Use this page for helpful hints and resources in that process.
Research Skills for the Personal project
Research Skills for the Personal project
Student shows evidence of the use of resources drawn from a wide variety of sources.
Source Type: Credible websites, blogs, encyclopedias, audio, videos, books, magazines, newspapers, scholarly articles, interviews, field notes/observations.
Shows evidence of explicit evaluation of many sources, with thorough descriptions of scope, credibility, reliability, accuracy, authority, and point of view.
Considers limitations and strengths of the sources as well as author bias, and evaluates based on the goal of the project.
Cites all relevant information in text.
Uses correct MLA in-text citation format with very few minor errors (spelling errors, small formatting errors, etc.)
Used with permission from ISS Personal Project by Lenny Dutton
What is the Research Process?
What is the Research Process?
Applying new knowledge and skills from research to your Product
AISL Research skills by grade level
AISL Research skills by grade level
Click on the image below and explore the entire Grade 10 column. If you need extra support in any of these skills, explore resources on this page and consider signing up for the Personal Project Flex support in Quarter 2 with Ms. Marie.
Which research skills are more challenging than others?
Which research skills are more challenging than others?
There is a hierarchy of skills in the Personal Project: some skills are more challenging than others. Use this helpful list to guide you to understand the level of Research Skills you are achieving.
Evaluating Sources
Evaluating Sources
You must evaluate the sources that you use in your research for the Personal Project. At AISL, we use lateral reading and SIFT, but there are other methods as well.
Here are some alternative methods and links:
ACCESS FM (analysing existing products - products are a type of source!)
Evaluating Print Sources (checklist)
Source Types
Source Types
Students may use both primary and secondary sources, plus a range of different source types.
Source types: books, newspapers, magazines, field notes, interviews, videos, journal articles, experiments...
The following information is from UNSW Sydney's Library website, as they shared this information in a clear, concise and easy-to-understand way. (If this is still not clear, you can find information about primary and secondary sources on other websites here, here and here).
Primary and secondary sources
Primary and secondary sources
Primary sources provide a first-hand account of an event or time period and are considered to be authoritative. They represent original thinking, reports on discoveries or events, or they can share new information. Often these sources are created at the time the events occurred but they can also include sources that are created later. They are usually the first formal appearance of original research.
Secondary sources involve analysis, synthesis, interpretation, or evaluation of primary sources. They often attempt to describe or explain primary sources.
Scholarly journals may be primary or secondary. Primary if they are reporting the data collected on a new development, or secondary if they summarize a series of studies that were previously done.
Primary and secondary categories are often not fixed and depend on the discipline you are researching. For example, newspaper editorial/opinion pieces can be both primary and secondary. If exploring how an event affected people at a certain time, this type of source would be considered a primary source. If exploring the event, then the opinion piece would be responding to the event and therefore is considered to be a secondary source.
Primary sources
Primary sources
Examples of primary resources include:
diaries, correspondence, ships' logs
original documents, e.g. birth certificates, trial transcripts
autobiographies, manuscripts
interviews, speeches, oral histories
case law, legislation, regulations, constitutions
government documents, statistical data, original research reports
a journal article reporting NEW research or findings
creative art works, performances, literature
newspaper advertisements and reportage and editorial/opinion pieces
Secondary sources
Secondary sources
Secondary sources offer an analysis, interpretation, or a restatement of primary sources and are considered to be persuasive. They often involve generalisation, synthesis, interpretation, commentary, or evaluation in an attempt to convince the reader of the creator's argument. They often attempt to describe or explain primary sources.
Examples of secondary sources include:
journal articles that comment on or analyse original research reports
textbooks
dictionaries and encyclopaedias
books that interpret, analyse
political commentary
biographies
dissertations
newspaper editorial/opinion pieces
criticism of literature, art works or music
Adapted from and used with permission from ISS Personal Project by Lenny Dutton
Where does Generative AI Fit In?
Where does Generative AI Fit In?
Discuss with your Mentor how you may use AI tools for your Product and your Report.
The IB has two major considerations you need to ask yourself:
Are you using AI to help you learn? If so, it may be acceptable.
If you're using it to offload your learning, it is not acceptable.Are you using AI to pretend you did something you did not? If so, it is not acceptable.
More specifically, for the written report, you should look at the AI Assessment Spectrum (below) and stay in AI Planning.
This means that you can use AI to:
✅ point you to sources
✅ outline or organize
✅ plan
✅ ideate
✅ create examples
You then need to critique and fact-check the output, and develop and refine it using your own critical thinking.
You may not use AI to:
❌ develop your original Product or Learning Goals (use your Mentor for this)
❌ translate your report
❌ edit or give you feedback on your report
❌ rewrite your report
❌ generate reflections
For developing your Product, you may be able to use Full AI or even AI Exploration. It just depends on your Product. Your Mentor can guide you about what is appropriate.
For further advice/help, see your Mentor. See also AI Scenarios by the IBO.
Interview Skills
Interview Skills
It is important to be prepared for all your interviews. Even if you intend for the interview to be informal, laid back, and spontaneous, you should still have a list of topics and questions you want to cover. You should ask open questions, covering who, what, why, how and when. After your interview you can write up a summary or transcribe the entire account. If you are interviewing through email, make sure to keep a copy of the whole email conversation. You may wish to use this in your process journal as evidence of research, collaboration or communication skills!
For further advice/help:
Used with permission from ISS Personal Project by Lenny Dutton
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