How to start writing the Biology IA

The most difficult part of every writing process? Starting. Planning your Internal Assessment in Biology can quickly become daunting, especially if it’s your first time writing a longer investigation. But don’t worry - we’ve got you covered with a list of the first steps of designing your IA. Here are the 5 of them to quickly start writing your Biology IA.

5 steps to jumpstart writing your Biology IA

1. Think about the topic of your investigation: The topic of your investigation will impact every part of your writing process. However, choosing it might be difficult, as there are numerous factors to take into consideration. Here are the most important ones:

    

   • Manageability: This broad category encompasses the knowledge and skills you possess, ethical considerations, as well as resources you possess and time restraints. For example, although you might be very interested in neurobiology, studying the expression of genes in brain tissue would involve using fluorescence microscopy, available only in select biotechnological laboratories. Additionally, it would raise ethical issues, as conducting an investigation on animals requires advanced training and often obtaining special permits. The last two elements are described below. To sum it up, try to design an experiment with which you are at least to a certain degree familiar and carefully examine what kind of organism you can conduct your study on.

      

   • Personal interest (and global significance): It is best if you choose a topic that actually interests you, as this maximizes your motivation for designing and conducting the study. However, it is crucial to find balance, as even the most engaging topic can become daunting if it is too challenging in terms of difficulty or the engagement of your resources. One of the most effective combinations is choosing a manageable investigation topic that involves design choices that are in line with your interests and hold personal significance. For example, you can investigate the rate of yeast fermentation, however using a specific strain that is used only in local breweries. It is also advisable to present the global significance of your topic, for example, how physiological drought impacts the farming industry on saline soils. 

      

   • Initiative in designing the study: When browsing through exemplars of IAs, you may come under the impression that “everything has already been done”. While it is true that numerous topics are repeated by students from year to year, you can improve your work by including an element of innovation in the design of your investigation. For example, try conducting a preliminary trial to finetune the range of your independent variable or use a slightly unobvious measurement method, for example measuring the dry mass of the root instead of the length of the seedling in germination experiments.

      

And you can see a perfect example of a well-structured topic here.

2. Consider your resources: Despite our best efforts, high school investigations are often limited by the varying access to different resources. Before confirming your choice of topic, you should evaluate:

    

   • Time: This is particularly within biology, as investigations on living organisms can take days, weeks, or even months. For example, most seeds will germinate within a few days, but the study of flowering or fruit development would involve months to even reach that stage of the life cycle of a plant. Even theoretical investigations involve an extensive research process and finding the most reliable data sources. This is why it is crucial to start your investigation early to prevent you from being left with restricted options. If your chosen topic cannot be realized within a certain timeframe that is left to your deadline, consider pivoting to a more manageable investigation.

      

   • Place: Consider where you will conduct your investigation - at home, in a school laboratory, or at an external institution. Your choice will heavily impact what kinds of experiments you can conduct. For example, theoretical investigations or the study of the germination of the plants can be done exclusively at home, application of precise weighing scales and most investigations of the rate of reactions will necessitate using school lab equipment, whereas professional machines like spectrophotometers in most cases require contact with professional or university laboratories.

      

   • Equipment: This ties in closely with the previous point. If you choose to use the school laboratory, do an inventory of the equipment that is available (and working). For biology investigation, you might be interested in weighing scales, precise calipers, data loggers, and others. You may also ask upper-grade students what they used for their investigation, which might also help you prevent any systematic errors in case of faulty equipment. There is a high chance that you may need to purchase additional materials, however, to limit costs (reagents and electronic devices can be quite expensive), focus on what is already available to you.