'Laboratory' research

I have deliberately labelled this ‘laboratory research’ rather than ‘practical work’. Since all Extended Essays are assessed using the same criteria and many IB subjects do not involve practical work there is no requirement for a student to do their own experiment work as part of their Extended Essay. Each year probably about 10-15 % of all Chemistry Extended Essays involve no ‘hands on’ practical work by the student. There are two big caveats to this though. Generally students seem to score less well if they do not do their own experimental work. This is because it is probably harder to show originality and personal input. It is quite difficult, but not impossible, to put an original slant on data generated by others. The second is that Chemistry is an experimental science and very much lends itself to individual investigations. 

Laboratory resources can essentially be sub-divided into two types. Some people think that meaningful research can only be carried out if you have the expensive equipment and resources that are only available in a properly equipped research laboratory. This means that each year some students do all their practical work in a university or industrial research laboratory. Often they seem to completely miss the point as to what an Extended Essay is about. It is not uncommon to find that a student has won an award and works during their summer holiday alongside a graduate student at university. I am sure this is very instructive and that they will learn a lot of useful Chemistry but it does not make for a good Extended Essay. They often have had little input into the topic of research – often it is the favourite area of the graduate student or professor in the laboratory – and it is also clear that they do not fully understand the underlying chemistry as it is too complex at IB level. They may be able to exert little control over the expensive equipment used with almost no possibility of adapting it. Additionally they may have to rely mainly on technicians to do much of the actual practical work as the equipment is too sophisticated to allow them to handle it personally. It is also difficult for the school supervisor to know exactly what input the student has had and how much help or otherwise has come from others. There are some good Extended Essays produced using university laboratories but these are where the student clearly develops the idea themselves and uses an instrument at the university to acquire data they could not easily obtain in a school. For example, one student prepared several alkenes with different groups around the double bond. Her aim was to determine how the different groups affected the precise value of the infrared absorption due to the double bond. As the school did not have its own infrared spectrometer the student got the local university to run the spectra for her. This, to me, is a sensible use of a good research laboratory.

The best Extended Essays come from students generating their own data in a school laboratory. School laboratory here is used in the widest sense and includes field work etc. This is because students have total control over their own experimental method. They can design and adapt equipment and alter the chemicals used to fit in with the direction of their own research. Even so, they must not do it in a vacuum. Many students talk about their experimental method in the Extended Essay but they do not state where the basic idea came from and how they have modified or adapted it. Often they also do not discuss other methods they could have used or give the reasons why they opted for a particular method and discarded others. If students can devise two different techniques to arrive at a solution to their Research Question then that can be a powerful help when they develop their argument as they can include a comparison of the two methods by discussing their strengths and weakness.To resource Extended Essay practical work you must be prepared to obtain some chemicals that you may not normally possess. Budgeting for this extra cost is part of the school’s responsibilities for Extended Essays (see School responsibilities). You will also need to factor in human resources. The 3-5 hours you spend supervising the Extended Essay refers to talking and discussing the progress of the Essay with the student – it does not include the fact that you must be present while they get on with their practical work. This means that you will also need to arrange practical ‘supervision’ as a member of staff will need to be physically present for Health and Safety reasons while the student is doing practical work. Some solutions to this are allowing the student to work while you are teaching other classes or arranging lunch time or after hours access to the laboratory while you can get on with marking or lesson preparation etc.

It can be helpful to have some general text books as resources for basic experimental methods in your school (or Chemistry Department) library. One very useful book is Vogel’s Quantitative Chemical Analysis.