Biology

The design criterion in biology internal assessment

Deciding upon the most suitable strategy for assessing the design criterion is one of the most important decisions for the teacher of IB biology. The questions to be considered when implementing a design strategy are as follows.

How much lesson time is to be allocated to the task?

How many students are in the teaching group?

What resources are available for use by the students?

Will the task stimulate a spirit of inquiry in the students and promote thinking skills in addressing a complex problem?

Do the students have the prerequisite skills and knowledge base to address the task in a meaningful manner?

Can the teacher ensure that, when completing the written phase of the investigation outside the classroom, the students work independently?

The answers to these questions will differ according to each school’s environment, but some common principles remain.

Students are more likely to work independently if their design task is unique to them.

Students are more likely to work independently if they have confidence in their own ability to complete the design task successfully.

Therefore, designing a scientific investigation is not done in a vacuum. For productive designs to be developed, students will need to have:

acquired some theoretical background

made observations in the relevant field

experience in certain manipulative skills specific to the investigation

an understanding of the scientific method (the importance of hypothesis testing where relevant, replicates, independent and dependent variables, controls, and sampling techniques).

Students will need to have their limits set, and counselling will be necessary in feasibility (time and cost), safety and ethics. For the sake of assessment, the students should design their investigations individually. However, it is possible that an initial brainstorming exercise would be useful to generate ideas that could then be further developed by...