IB Math Studies: IA Checklist

The following checklist is based on the rubric that is used to grade your project. To maximize your score, you should be able to check off as many of the following as possible.

A. Introduction □ Do I have a meaningful title? □ Do I have a clear statement of task stated explicitly, and does it describe what I am researching/what question I am trying to answer? □ Do I have a clear description of the plan, describing how my task will be performed (including how I will obtain data and how I will analyze it?) □ Did I include my own thoughts and predictions of what the answer to my research question will be? □ Did I give some background information on my topic? □ Did I discuss why I wanted to research this topic?

B. Information/measurement □ Is my data relevant to the research question I am trying to answer? □ Is my data sufficient in quantity? □ Is my data sufficient in quality (i.e., not too simple)? □ Is my data from a reputable source? □ Did I cite the source of my data? □ Did I include all of the raw data in an appendix? □ Did I organize the raw data into a form appropriate for analysis (ex., a table)? □ If necessary, did I group the data in an appropriate way?

C. Mathematical processes □ Did I include at least two “sophisticated” math processes (for example, finding the correlation and line of best fit, AND a Chi-Squared Test, all by hand)? □ Did I realize that “simple” mathematical processes (such as finding the mean and standard deviation, as well as creating bar charts and pie charts) may be necessary but will not be sufficient to earn a top score in this category? □ Did I show all necessary work and complete all work by hand? □ Are the mathematical processes I used relevant and meaningful for the type of data I collected? □ Did I double-check my work to make sure that it is accurate?

D. Interpretation of results □ Did I produce at least two conclusions based on my mathematical processes? □ Did I discuss how I interpreted the results of my mathematical processes? □ Are my conclusions and interpretations consistent with the mathematical process? □ Do my conclusions relate back to my original research question? □ Is my discussion of my interpretations and conclusions “comprehensive”?

E. Validity □ Did I address the issue of whether or not my mathematical processes were appropriate in this context? □ Did I discuss why the mathematical processes used are applicable in this context? □ Did I