Internal Assessment

A good project for Internal Assessment can be the backbone of a good grade and good experience on the Maths Studies course. Obviously at 20% of the course grade, its importance speaks for itself, but the real value is doubled if students can find a topic that really interests them and use it as an opportunity to practise and make sense of the Mathematics they have studied. Internal Assessment is a huge challenge for students and teachers alike. Hopefully, these pages will be helpful in rising to that challenge! The following outlines this section of the website. Navigate to the sections with the menu on the left. The challenge for teachers with this task involves, helping students to choose the right topic, helping them to get started, deciding a time frame and managing multiple projects that fit within that time frame! Not much then! Students have to have topics that both interest them and have the potential for quality investigation. They have to settle on a starting point and a theme to give their project purpose. You have to pick a time frame that suits both you and the students well, in terms of which parts of the course you have covered and how it fits within the time frame of your schools assessment cycle and then you have to manage the projects in a way that means they fit in to the time allowed!

New syllabus 'Exploration' Internal Assessments

The below, and linked pages, aims to help Studies teachers understand the similarities and differences between the current Studies 'Projects' and the current (to be updated once the 'new exploration criteria' are released) SL/HL exploration criteria.

About IA

This page is intended as a a brief guide to the IA process and the paperwork you should have to hand for planning and running it. This will be most appropriate for those new to teaching the course.

Managing Projects

This is without a doubt the most crucial element for planning. I have spoken to numerous teachers who have all had problems with this and all come up with creative solutions that suit them. There is no one right time to tackle the projects but there are a number of very important considerations! I generally adapt my approach every time I speak to a teacher who gives me a new idea! The aim of these pages is just to pass on some of these ideas and create a checklist of the things that help the management of projects. Also included on this page is a series of tasks for students all under the heading of the 'Project Planner' intended to help students and teachers with the managing the IA part of the course.

Project Ideas

Project ideas can generally be split into two categories. 'Statistyics Projects' and 'Non Statistics Projects' although it is difficult to complete the latter without any statistical analysis, particularly given that much hinges on data/information collection. This page is intended to help teachers inspire students for project ideas and help point out the key elements of a good topic.

Possible Tasks

On this page, to go with the above, there is a list and description of some possible project tasks, based on projects I have seen and those I would quite like to do. This is not intended to be a quick fix for students who should be finding their own ideas, but simply as a tool for inspiration! Each idea has a little explanation about the potential.

Collecting Information/Data

Whatever the project, there is an element of data collection involved. These may be generated by students investigations or from questionnaires or from the Internet. This page talks about this part of the process and offers guidance and ideas for making this part of the process efficient, like the awesome, 'google forms' for questionnaires for example.

Project Problems

This page is intended as a brief guide to some of the major pitfalls involved with this task that are best avoided. Again, this is very much a working web-page as there are likely to be new problems that occur each year. As such the page should be an ever evolving guide that should become more and more helpful.

Practice Projects

Running practice/mini projects in your class can be a great and engaging way both to teach some of the syllabus and introduce/explore the notion of projects. Here are some ideas about how to do this at different points in the syllabus.

Marking & Moderation

The quick and easy solution! I wish! Sorry, I haven't found one yet. This bit can be very time consuming and frustrating, but is obviously of great importance. I have actually begun to enjoy this part of the process but still find it hard to fit in the time it takes! This section offers some guidance on the marking and moderating part, including some example marked projects with commentary and a section on 'Preparing a sample'.

Technology and Projects

This is a page about the impact that using technology can have on projects. It offers a few examples of why it is a really good things and some warnings against some of the pitfalls!