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Focusing a research question

  • /
  • The Investigation/
  • Exploration/
  • Focusing a research question

One of the most important factors to the success of an Individual investigation is the choice of a relevant and focused research question.  What does one of these look like?  How can students write one?  This activity will help to illustrate several key components to guide students towards a good research question, and it will give students some practice in writing one.

Lesson Description

Guiding Question

When you read a research question, how do you tell the dependent and the independent variables?

Activity 1 - How to focus a research question

Read the seven steps in the list below.  Try to apply each stem to the examples below.

How to focus an IB research question?

  1. Decide an idea or a topic of study
  2. Search for the variables and their ranges
  3. Decide which are the DV and the IV
  4. Check that the IV actually causes a change in the DV through biology
  5. If the DV is a calculated value, identify what will be measured.
  6. Squeeze the scope, focus the question on a specific thing.
  7. Make it scientific, correct units, scientific names of species, bio terms (eg. Respiration, concentration )
  8. See if you can describe a null hypothesis & an alternative hypothesis

Unfocused Research  Question 1

Does changing the pH levels have a measurable effect on photosynthesis in plants?

1. The topic is the effect of pH on photosynthesis

2. The variables are pH of the solution ( Ranging from pH 1 to 14) and the rate of photosynthesis.

3. The dependnet variable (DV) is the rate of photosynthesis. 

This is because the rate varies dependent on the pH, not vice versa

4.  How can pH cause a change in photosynthesis?

  • Enzymes are involved in photosynthesis
  • pH can change the rate of activity of enzymes

5.  Rate of photosynthesis is a derived value, calculated from something measured in the experiment.

     Measurements could be - bubbles of oxygen produced, rate of change in CO2 concentration,

     or 1 divided by the time taken for a spinach leaf disk to rise in a syringe.

6. Squeeze the scope by naming the species of plant.  Spinach ( Spinacia oleracea )

    Squeeze the scope by specifying a range of pH values.  From pH1 to pH7

7.  Does changing the pH from pH1 to pH7 have a measurable effect on the rate of photosynthesis in spinach plants      

   (Spinacia oleracea ), estimated from the time taken for leaf disks to float.?

8.  Null hypothesis (H0):  A change in pH will not change the rate of photosynthesis

     Alternative hypothesis (H1)  As the pH decreases the rate of photosynthesis will decrease.

Activity 2 - Practice focusing research questions

Try to focus the research questions on focusing research questions worksheet shown below​.

Activity 3 - Explaining the cause and effect using Biology

In the exploration section of the IA and in the conclusion section students are expected to explain biological theory.

This has to be relevant to the research question and to the experiment. The best way to do this is to explain how the dependent variable (DV) can be affected by the independent variable (IV) through biological processes.

It is best if these processes have been studied as part of the IB Biology course but students are not restricted to the IB course.

Unfocused Research  Question 1

Does changing the pH levels have a measurable effect on photosynthesis in plants?

List the biological theory which you could use to explain why changes in pH might cause a change in the rate of photosynthesis.

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It is also very good practice to keep a list of citations and references for these details.

Teacher's notes

One area where students lose marks in their individual investigation is when the research questions is not properly focused.

It is really hard to write a good conclusion if you are not sure what the question is exactly.

This activity is a quick theoretical activity which will help to give students experience of writing a good research question.

The three exercises are self explanatory.  There is more than one good answer for each research question.