This discussion is now closed.

Check out other Related discussions

Is Biology EE hard compared to other topics? Did anyone do a topic on Biology?

It seems like the Sciences are harder compared to other subjects?? Does anyone have a good topic for Biology on diseases?

Reply 1

afoneleri

Word of advice - do not do an EE in bio or chem unless you absolutely need to (i.e. your applying for medicine and need to have something to talk about in interviews) because it is very very difficult to get good marks. They're very picky about subjects and the way data is collected and it's virtually impossible to get an A. there were six people in my class who did bio EEs this year, three predicted As and no one got over a C.

If you need the points, pick a different subject. If you need the discussion point, just be aware that you're unlikely to get top marks.

As for EEs on diseases - remember, you need to be able to collect sufficient data to base your argument on. And it has to be entirely biological (if you move into biochemistry, they'll only grade the bio parts). I can't think of anything you could do really, because it's not something you could experiment with at all.

Good luck anyway!

Reply 2

afoneleri

hic_et_ubique

I don't think a subject can be "harder" per se than others, it depends whether or not you can formulate a good research question. Diseases is way too vague a topic imo. But Biology EE's are very very interesting to do, and that's why you should pick a topic - not because it's easy to get A's but because you like it and want to investigate it. Many of my classmates have had A's on really interesting biology EE's this year and frankly, I don't think you should be deterred by the so-called lack of A's in the sciences - it pretty much depends on how well your question pertains to biology and how well you attempt to investigate it. And you know the best part? You could be all wrong for your hypothesis/results but still get an A because you evaluated what went wrong!

It in great part depends on the examiners you get, like everything in the IB. And whilst there may be some good examiners (and it would seem that you're school is lucky) the vast majority aren't clear what they're marking for in the science EEs. The variety of suggestions and instructions we got coming from varied sources was more than a little confusing. And as for interesting...yes, that's fine. As long as the subject's interesting to the examiner as well. But you and the examiner won't always agree on what's interesting...

Reply 3

saray

...Well, as far as i know, one of my mates was predicted an A in biology ee. Ended up with a C. Then asked for a remark. C again.

Reply 4

rawkingpunkster

english would be the easiest, as primary data is not required. just read a lot and you'll be fine.

I find an EE in humanities a lot easier

Reply 5

silver_charm18

OP

1

Thanks so much everyone for giving me some good advice! However, the one thing that I am confused about is if I pick a particular disease, would I just talk about the causes and effects of it?? It wouldn't be right because I need to form a question to answer and where I can use surveys and experiments (which are a lot harder to do). Does anyone have other ideas or advices? Thank you again in advance!

Reply 6

afoneleri

silver_charm18

Thanks so much everyone for giving me some good advice! However, the one thing that I am confused about is if I pick a particular disease, would I just talk about the causes and effects of it?? It wouldn't be right because I need to form a question to answer and where I can use surveys and experiments (which are a lot harder to do). Does anyone have other ideas or advices? Thank you again in advance!

You'd have to have a research question - it's not enough to just list cause and effects, because you haven't actually done any experimentation etc. That's the main thing you need for any science EE - an experiment or at the very least something for which you can collect (sufficient) data. You'd need something like 'Is the incidence of (disease) affected by the prevalance of (something)' - something that is very precise. Although you can start with a general idea and work your way to a more specific question. Doing an EE on disease is very difficult though - there's no real way for you to carry out any experiments, certainley not on other humans...

Reply 7

pianofingers

10

The key to all EEs is personal input -- just using a load of textbooks or other secondary information sources doesn't quite cut it with the IB.

My opinion is that disease is probably best avoided. I too want to go into medicine (and incidentally I wanted to do something on disease!) but I've been advised to steer clear of anything primarily medical because:

(1) You need to do an experiment.
(2) You can't do experiments on humans.
(3) You can't do experiments that'll cause animals to suffer.

The difficulty with disease is that experiments are obviously unsafe or cause harm to animals, whilst surveys are good at showing correlation but they don't really, in my opinion, establish true cause and effect. Also, surveys may say that X does Y, but they cannot really say WHY X does Y -- for that you'll need your books or articles, and those are secondary sources. That's the big issue. An experiment shows a much clearer "WHY", and is an example of personal input.

Reply 8

silver_charm18

OP

1

naimslim89 What topic did you do for your ee? and how did you do on it?

Reply 9

pianofingers

10

Good question. It requires a good answer :biggrin:

Answer is, I haven't finished yet, but I'm doing mine on crickets and environmental temperature -- although I'm unsure on whether I should do the effect on respiration or the effect on how a cricket's song differs due to temperature!! I'll probably go for the former not the latter. Obviously the temperatures won't be extremes, so I won't be baking/freezing the poor things to death!

I should be doing it rather than spending my time on :tsr2:

!!

Reply 10

silver_charm18

OP

1

what does TSR stand for?

Reply 11

aficionado89

The Student Room!!!

Reply 12

Extravagent

i am thinking of doin my ee on biology...but i havent got a question itself....kinda worried......i looked through all the science journals..but still havent got sth tat interested me?
need some help!!!

Reply 13

mankoosho

Extravagent

i am thinking of doin my ee on biology...but i havent got a question itself....kinda worried......i looked through all the science journals..but still havent got sth tat interested me?
need some help!!!

There is a friend of mine in my school who started his EE on chemistry, but found it very very hard, so switched to doing it on Arabic after like it was almost time to turn it in!

Reply 14

andy_cole2

14

the stats on EEs show the best marks are always in english and then the humanities subjects. i did mine in history despite not even studying the subject at IB and i sitll came out wiht a strong A. i'd recommend it personally :p:

Reply 15

Catchetat

15

I'm doing mines on Biology! Thought of a topic, but not sure if it's good enough...

Mine's about diet and blood pressure, and I've discussed a fair (little!) bit w/ my Bio teacher about the actual details.. I hope it will get through well!

Btw I never knew it's that hard to get an A for Bio EE!!!!!!!!! >.<

Reply 16

Cynicism 101

11

I did it in bio...

Loved it.

*waits for results.crosses fingers*

Reply 17

friedrice

I'm interested in doing it in Biology too.

The main problem I have is getting lab equipment to perform the experiment?

Any suggestions?

Reply 18

Extravagent

well ithink u just need to ask the lab person about the euipment...once u knoe ur topic..just need to do reserch and once u have it ...anythign is possible....u knoe u can even find a previous expt. on it and then...just see wat u may need...but...i guess if u just have a vague topic and finding an expt would be difficult..such as one i was thinking about.-hereditary characteristics in genetics....hope this helps

Reply 19

clear.skies

Umm... IB gives us the freedom to almost whatever we want on our EEs. To me, it only makes sense that you will do well and stay interested when you pick your field and topic that truly interests you. Sure, I can do well on a history or English EE, but I found that biology was much more engaging for me.

I learned so much more, I believe, by doing my EE in biology. It's more applicable for me seeing that I want to go into pre-med and will major in bio. It was challenging, since I wasn't that familiar with the format and all, but I learned so much that it was completely worth it -- spending the extra time researching the structure of a bio paper.

At first, I wanted to do my paper over gene therapy, but found it difficult to carry out testing and whatnot. So I went around in circles and came up with a research paper on comparing hen eggshell colors and seeing if it effected the hatchability. Sounds drab, I know, but it was very thorough and it was interesting to me. So it worked. :smile:

If anyone wants to do a bio paper, I say go for it. The point of IB, afterall, is to take risks and step into the unknown and to be a true learner. Don't steer away from bio just because it's "harder". That's definitely an opinion. :p:

Is Biology EE hard compared to other topics? Did anyone do a topic on Biology?

Related discussions

Articles for you