Framing the Research Question

The sharply focused Research Question

Hopefully, once the student has read around the topic, ideas for a sharply focused Research Question will begin to emerge. It is your job to help the student formulate a sharply focused Research Question which is capable of being answered in 4000 words and within 40 hours of work. The essential thing is that the Research Question is clearly framed and not too broad. It is also essential that it is a Chemistry topic and does not belong to another subject. Read through examples of past topics and take on board advice given in the IB Extended Essay Guide and in the annual Extended Essay Chemistry reports, both of which can be found on the programme resources section of My IB.

You can help your student to arrive at a focused Research Question by asking them:

To bear in mind that they will need to be able to explain clearly how they have focused the research question and why it is significant and worthy of study. For many topics such as those relating to global warming or pollution explaining its significance should not be difficult. For those involving ‘blue sky’ research intellectual curiosity is still a very valid reason but it will be important for the student to be able to set the work into an academic and scholarly framework.
To see whether they can narrow their proposed research question even further. If they can, then perhaps it is not focused enough. For example, a possible research question might be ‘How does the addition of acid affect the synthesis of aspirin?’ Questions that could be asked are:

(1) Which acid is being added?

(2) What sort of affect is being considered?

(3) What is the aspirin being synthesised from?

This should lead the student to formulate a more precise research question along the lines of ‘How does the addition of a sulfuric acid catalyst affect the rate of formation of aspirin during the reaction of salicylic acid with ethanoic anhydride?

Note that, unlike in the past, the Research Question must be framed as a question. A hypothesis or statement of intent is not acceptable. For example, ‘Determining the best conditions for tooth whitening using hydrogen peroxide’ is no longer acceptable and should now be framed, for example, as, ‘What are the best conditions for the whitening of teeth by hydrogen peroxide?

What is important is that the Research ‘Question’ can produce a reasoned argument capable of being covered in 40 hours and 4000 words.

Sometimes students will come up initially with inappropriate Research Questions.

Reasons why they may be inappropriate include:

The topic is too broad or descriptive.
The topic involves working with dangerous or toxic chemicals.
Chemicals, equipment or apparatus required is not readily available to the student.
The topic includes factors that are subjective and cannot easily be quantified such as ‘health’.
The topic is too trivial.
The topic is too ambitious to cover within the scope of an extended essay.
The topic raises ethical concerns.
The outcome of the topic is already known.
The topic is simply an Internal Assessment ‘Design’ experiment in disguise.

Summary

In summary the key points you as a supervisor should be satisfied with include:

The student has identified a suitable approach to the Research Question and recorded how they arrived at this in their researcher's reflective space.
The Research Question meets all the Health and Safety and Ethical requirements etc.
The Research Question is capable of being argued to a reasonable conclusion within 40 h / 4000 words.
The student can explain why the topic is significant and worthy of study and how they have focused the research question.
There are adequate sources available to the student for the research.

The quality of the Research Question

Although much emphasis is rightly placed on whether the Research Question is suitably focused there is a much more important aspect to the Research Question. We saw in the page on Objectives that the Research Question is the key to the whole Extended Essay. All five of the assessment criteria are heavily dependent upon it. Encourage your students to avoid opting for a very straightforward Research Question where essentially the answer is already known. They can certainly still achieve a satisfactory grade for the Essay with a straightforward Research Question but they are unlikely to score highly whenever qualities such as personal input and initiative are rewarded. Examples of straightforward Research Questions which are quite common in Chemistry are basically of the type, ‘Does it contain what it says on the side of the tin?’ For example, ‘Does this variety of orange juice contain the amount of vitamin C that it states on the side of the packet?’ It is much better to include other variables to give Research Questions along the lines of ‘How does the time or temperature of storage affect the amount of vitamin C in a named fruit drink?’ Encourage your students to frame their Research Question in the form of the …the effect of X on Y… if they are seeking to achieve high marks.

A genuine example of framing the Research Question

A student of mine, Ian, from Canada arrived back from his Christmas holidays with an article he had found in a local paper. The article talked about a red dye that had recently been banned in red jellies in Canada as it had been found to be potentially carcinogenic. The article gave the name of the dye. Ian realised that he could ask new students arriving at the college in the summer to bring with them samples of jellies from their own countries so that he could analyse them to see whether any contained the red dye. The following shows how the topic was refined to an eventual Research Question.

PROPOSED TOPIC/RESEARCH QUESTION	COMMENTS
Chemical analysis	Obviously too broad
Analysis of red dyes in food	Still much too broad.
Analysis of red dyes in food using chromatography	Better, but still too broad
Analysis of red dyes in strawberry jelly using chromatography	Getting better - nearly there
Analysis of red dyes in strawberry jelly using paper chromatography	Almost there
Title of Essay: The analysis of the red dyes in different varieties of strawberry jelly from around the world using paper chromatography.	Topic is focused
Research Question: How prevalent is the use of the red dye Allura Red AC (E129) in samples of strawberry jelly from 24 different countries knowing that its use is banned in the UK and Canada but permitted in the USA.	Research question is sharply focused

Some more examples of focused or otherwise Research Questions are given at the bottom of the page.

Title of EE versus Research Question

The example above raises an interesting point which teachers sometimes ask about at workshops. In the past some students made the Title of their Extended Essay word for word the same as their Research Question whereas others had a different Title to the Research Question. Should the Title be different? Academically it is probably best to make the Title a slightly more general statement of the Research Question, (and consequently shorter) as in the example above. This is the approach I favour and for essays submitted for May 2018 onwards 2018 it is now the official requirement of the IB. In the Extended essay guide it specifically states,

"The title of your essay should be a clear, focused summative statement of your research, which gives the reader an indication of your research topic. It should not be phrased as a research question."

Further examples of Research Questions

….some bad ones

The history of war gases.

How do different salts affect the freezing point of water?

Does coffee contain more caffeine than tea?

Investigating an aspect of the rate of the reaction between magnesium and hydrochloric acid.

A comparison of biodiesels with diesel.

Click on the 'eye' to see why they are bad.

The first is History not Chemistry, the second concerns already well-known colligative properties, the third is too broad (which coffee? which tea?), the fourth is just a straightforward class practical and the fifth is too broad. In addition the first, fourth and fifth are not phrased as questions.

… and some good ones

How does the concentration of caffeine affect the rate of decomposition of hydrogen peroxide in liver in the presence of paracetamol?

Can isotope ratio mass spectrometry be used to detect whether five specific commercial types of fruit juices have been adulterated with high fructose corn syrup?

How effective is boric acid as a flame retardant for the brush fences commonly used around houses in Victoria, Australia?

Is there a difference in the total antioxidant ability between garlic grown organically and garlic grown commercially?

Which is the most accurate of three different methods to determine the amount of Al³⁺ ions in deodorants?

Which is the most effective at reducing apple browning – salt, vinegar or lemon juice and at what concentration?

How does varying the pH affect the mechanism of the Cu²⁺ catalysed oxidation of vitamin C?

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