...or at least a spreadsheet of databases!

At our Coffee with Chris & Emma events and on the My IB forum, there are often questions about use of databases for the investigation (not least now that a large number of students are learning at home). At ThinkIB, we don't hugely endorse this approach:

• It's hard to do something original with data already compiled for a specific purpose (e.g. verifying Hubble's law)
• If the data has not previously been used to answer a research question in physics, it would probably be far beyond the scope of the investigation for a DP student to attempt this

Nonetheless, the Subject Guide suggests that "extracting data from a database and analysing it graphically" is a "possible task" if sufficiently "complex and commensurate with the level of the course... [with a] purposeful research question and scientific rationale".

To this end, we have started a spreadsheet of databases and would welcome your suggestions for additions in the Comments below.