Planning (6pts)

This criterion assesses the extent to which the student has developed appropriate methods to gather data that is relevant to the research question. This data could be primary or secondary, qualitative or quantitative, and may utilize techniques associated with both experimental or social science methods of inquiry. There is an assessment of safety, environmental and ethical considerations where applicable.

Independent and dependent variables (IV & DV):

Controlled variables (CV):

Design/Procedure/Methods:

Planning (20%)

* Repeatable, in this context, means that sufficient detail is provided for the reader to be able to replicate the data collection for another environment or society. It does not necessarily mean repeatable in the sense of replicating it under laboratory conditions to obtain a number of runs or repeats in which all the control variables are exactly the same.

MAY 2023 SUBJECT REPORT (IB's feedback on what students did well, and did not)

"All students, bar a few, attempt a plan. Planning for sufficient data collection to answer the RQ and providing justifications for the choices made in the plan are often the hardest aspects of this criterion. The aspect most often missing is the ethics & risks. The procedure to collect data should enable the investigation to be repeated. The method is often lacking in enough details to ensure repeatability.

Field based investigations must detail the rationale for the site choice, and detail the actual sites chosen. Then the collection of a sample or data from the site must also be specified. Survey or questionnaire investigations should include the questions and justify why these questions are asked. The survey should not be in an appendix. How and why the participants are chosen, and how the survey is distributed are part of the procedure for a survey.

Secondary data investigations must mention the source used to collect the data and the ethics behind why this is a suitable data source. How the data is extracted from the database or website should be detailed in the plan.

In laboratory investigations the justification for the independent variable treatments should be given. The collection of sufficient data varies depending upon the type of statistical manipulation that will be done to answer the RQ. This must be addressed in the plan. Secondary and survey data usually require more data points than a lab-based investigation.

There is no need to copy out test kit instructions or how to set up a spreadsheet, calculate statistics or how to create a survey. It is sufficient to state that an application or kit has been used, giving the name for repeatability purposes. Some students had a planning section that did not address the RQ."