It’s that time of year where all the IB students in a very particular class become utterly stressed. It is IA season. Dreaded by all and loved by VERY few, it is the peak time for stress and a great time to perfect your multitasking skills! However, not many students have an idea of what an IA is and how to get the perfect one for you going into it.
IA stands for Internal Assessment, and it is a part of your total score for your IB classes. All HL and SL classes have to do an IA, and depending on the subject, the IA will vary in difficulty. The Internal Assessment will be, just as the name indicates, evaluated internally. What that means is that your teacher will be grading your IAs and sending them back to IB.
The process of writing an IA is simple. In most classes, it will be divided into sections in order to make it easier to digest, and then it will be evaluated by your teacher, or in the case of math classes, by peer review. Trust me, it’s less daunting than it might seem. Once you’re on your fifth one, the adrenaline subsides.
Once it’s been reviewed one time, you will receive corrections and suggestions, which you may or may not follow. Afterwards, you’re in charge of getting the final details sorted out and turning it in to your teacher, who turns it in to Ms. Wise, who turns it in to IB. Simple!
Now, chemistry is a hard subject for many students. I mean, it’s a lot of math and abstract concepts like electrons and whatever the heck an alkyl group is. As someone who is in the process of writing an IA up, here are my tips to finding a cool topic that is unique but also fun!
Always pick something you like, and put a spin on it. In my case, I picked a food I liked and tried to find how it related to what I was studying then (which was acids and bases). The things you like can range from pollution in water, or dyes, or even Fiji water! The possibilities are endless.
When in doubt, use the internet. It’s there for a reason. Maybe you won’t find the most unique topics, but you will find a base for whatever it is you’d like to do. I started off considering a Vitamin C IA, and found myself doing a back titration! Everyone starts somewhere.
Knowing Mrs. Barkow, she will send out a list of ideas. Take them into consideration when looking for topics. Some may be really generic, but again, you could get an idea of what you’d like to do.
Look to the world around you. Chemistry is everywhere. Maybe consider the effects of pollution like acid rain, and how nature is impacted. Or consider the effects of chemicals on natural items that come from different places. Test soil from New York, San Francisco, Miami. It’s all free game.
If you really can’t find something you like, go with something complicated enough that you’d learn about in chemistry class. Who knows, you may end up liking it!
Good luck on your IAs and remember your lab safety procedures! Don’t mess around with that HCl.