GEOGRAPHY

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Choosing a topic

• Before you decide on a topic, ensure that there is enough existing secondary data to support your research or that you can gather enough primary data on which to base your essay. Begin by exploring geographical topics or issues that are perhaps familiar to you and that you are interested in. Your local environment can generally offer a good range of options, but make sure that the sources you select include enough data (primary or secondary) so that the sample size is statistically significant.

• Your data can be primary, secondary or a combination of both. While collecting primary data can be time consuming or logistically challenging, it does allow for the collection of qualitative observations that can easily be turned into quantitative data (such as numbers, points and scores). Alternatively, secondary data sources can often provide a robust sample size. A sample size that is too small limits your capacity to develop and prove a valid argument. For example, a few sample points along a river will not prove much about the characteristics of the whole river. Similarly, a couple of transects across a city, with 10 sample points each, might not be enough to prove that there is an urban heat island, and a sample of 100 people is not sufficient to discuss the characteristics of a population of several millions.

• The scale and scope of the research is also important. Local scale is manageable, while a national scale can be challenging to explore within the word limit, and global-scale essays are generally far too broad for the scope of an extended essay.

• The topic you choose can revolve around established or recent theories and models, but make sure your essay reflects current knowledge on the subject. Some ideas to get you thinking include the following.

• Bid-rent theory

• Von Thunen agricultural location theory

• Land use models

• Rent-gap theory

• Merton’s strain theory

• United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea

• Models of vegetation altitudinal zonation

• Hydrological models

• Soil analysis

• Water analysis

• Theory of microclimates

• Creating or testing geographical indices

Resources

Appropriate resources for an EE in geography include:

• primary data/secondary data

• academic literature

• quantitative and qualitative information

• books, newspapers and magazines

• interviews and/or questionnaires

• sources accessed via the internet

• maps

• aerial photographs and satellite images

• digital landscape simulations

• videos

• GIS

• diagrams and models.

Students should analyse their data using appropriate quantitative, statistical, graphical or qualitative techniques and the findings should be critically evaluated.

Illustrations and maps

It is essential that a geography EE be supported by appropriate illustrative graphical material, such as diagrams, maps, tables, images and graphs. Students must acknowledge the sources for each.

Maps

• Locational context is always best introduced through maps.

• All maps should give an indication of orientation and scale, and include a legend or key.

• Students should clearly reference all maps used and give the source of any base maps they have not constructed themselves.

The use of scanned maps or satellite images, or those that are downloaded in unaltered form, is rarely effective and provides little evidence of students’ map skills. However, students are encouraged to modify or adapt such images.

Students are encouraged to include:

• sketch maps

• labelled or annotated diagrams

• maps they have constructed with the data gathered.

If students draw maps using computer software, they should state the proprietary program used. Hand-drawn maps should be neat and clear, and employ standard map conventions.

Images or photographs

Images or photographs should only be used if they are essential illustrative components of the essay, ie not just decoration.

Students should explain the feature(s) an image or photograph is intended to illustrate. Each should be:

• oriented

• sourced

• labelled, annotated or captioned.