The purpose of the new internal assessment task is for students to engage in a study of an
environmental issue that can be focused within the scope of the ESS internal assessment
but that is, at the same time, linked to a broader environmental context and that will
ultimately inform the wider issue through the suggestion of solutions or applications. The
process of engaging with this study might therefore involve:
identifying a broad environmental issue (the context) that interests the student
developing and carrying out a small-scale study that relates to one or more aspects
of this issue
using the conclusion and evaluation of this study to suggest applications or
solutions to the broader issue that was the stimulus for the study.
The study could be carried out at a local, regional or global level. It is possible for the
student to identify a global context, to carry out a related study on a local scale and then
consider how their findings relate to providing solutions to the bigger issue. It is also
possible to identify a global context and then to carry out a small-scale study of one aspect
of that global problem using secondary data that is available through databases or other
secondary sources. A third possibility is that the student uses a local context as the basis
of their focused study, since not all authentic environmental problems are global in
nature.
Planning phase
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Of the question, issue or Identifying the context: Of the values, attitudes and
problem arising from the Raising awareness and activities of the different
interaction of people understanding of the groups of individuals
and their environments. issue, question or regarding this issue, question
problem or problem.
Graphs, pie charts, flow Results, analysis and Identify bias, prejudice, and
charts, tables, maps, conclusion: Data analysis misrepresentation. Identify
descriptive statistics, and presentation conflicts of interest and the
inferential statistics, most powerful positions.
hypothesis testing. What does the data show?
What does the data
show?
2
Based on the Application: Solutions and Based on the social context,
environmental context, decisions what are the management
what are the options? Which ones should
management options? or could be carried out?
Which should be carried Why? Will the enquiry
out? Does the social change your ideas, ethics or
consideration conflict behaviour?
with the environmental
one?
Each criterion aims to assess different aspects of the students research abilities. The
sections are differently weighted to emphasize the relative contribution of each aspect to
the overall quality of the investigation. As the investigation and, therefore, the
approaches to the investigation, will be individual to each student, the marking criteria are
not designed to be a tick chart markscheme and each section is meant to be seen within
the context of the whole. As such, a certain degree of interpretation is inevitable.
Achievement Descriptor
level
3
0 The students report does not reach a standard described by any of the
descriptors given below.
Planning (PLA)(6)
This criterion assesses the extent to which the student has developed appropriate
methods to gather data that is relevant to the research question. This data could be
primary or secondary, qualitative or quantitative, and may utilize techniques associated
with both experimental or social science methods of inquiry. There is an assessment of
safety, environmental and ethical considerations where applicable.
Achievement Descriptor
level
4
0 The students report does not reach a standard described by any of the
descriptors given below.
*Repeatable, in this context, means that sufficient detail is provided for the reader to be
able to replicate the data collection for another environment or society. It
does not necessarily mean repeatable in the sense of replicating it under laboratory
conditions to obtain a number of runs or repeats in which all the control variables are
exactly the same.
5
Achievement Descriptor
level
0 The students report does not reach a standard described by any of the
descriptors given below.
6
Achievement Descriptor
level
0 The students report does not reach a standard described by any of the
descriptors given below.
Applications (APP)(3)
This criterion assesses the extent to which the student identifies and evaluates one way to
apply the outcomes of the investigation in relation to the broader environmental issue
that was identified at the start of the project.
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Achievement Descriptor
level
0 The students report does not reach a standard described by any of the
descriptors given below.
Communication (COM)(3)
This criterion assesses whether the report has been presented in a way that supports
effective communication in terms of structure, coherence and clarity. The focus, process
and outcomes of the report are all well presented.
Achievement Descriptor
level
8
0 The students report does not reach a standard described by any of the
descriptors given below.
Planning
Here, the emphasis is on the development of the methodology of the investigation. ESS
allows for a broad range of studies that could be scientific or social-science based. The
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criterion has been designed to allow for assessment of a wide range of types of study. So,
for example, when justifying the choice of the sampling strategy, this could mean
explaining the method of sampling recipients in a questionnaire, but could also mean the
selection of the number of repeats and the control of variables in a laboratory test. The
important idea is that the methodology is appropriate to the focused research question,
that there is sufficient data generated to lead to a conclusion, and that the rationale is
explained clearly.
Many ESS studies will involve ethical or safety considerations. The students must address
this, where necessary, paying attention to the IB animal experimentation policy (which
includes guidelines on working with human subjects), and should write about their
strategies for upholding safety and/or ethical standards in the report.
Applications
For this criterion, the student is expected to reflect on the results of their study in the light
of the broader environmental issue and suggest how their findings could be applied to
address the environmental issue, or to propose a potential solution to one aspect of the
issue. This criterion is therefore concerned with the synthesis of new ideas based on
research findings. The suggestion might be based in the local context of the study itself, or
might have relevance in a wider field, depending on the nature of the initial research
question and the quality of the data obtained. In order to score highly, the student must
justify and evaluate their suggestion rather than just stating a proposal.
Communication
The marking points for communication take the entire report into consideration. If a
report is clearly written and logically presented there should be no need for the teacher to
reread it. The information and explanations should be targeted at the question in hand
rather than a general exposition of the subject area; in other words, it should be focused.
The vocabulary should be subject specific and of a quality appropriate to the Diploma
Programme. The subject-specific conventions that can be expected are the correct
formats for graphs, tables and cell headings, and the correct use of units. This is not to say
that the presentation needs to be faultless to gain full marks. Minor errors are acceptable
as long as they do not have a significant bearing on understanding or interpretation of the
results.
A report that exceeds the given word limit is likely to be penalized in this section for not
being concise.
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