This guide is aimed at helping students in the coursework areas of designing, collecting and processing data, analysing, concluding and evaluating an experiment. It includes real examples of experiments, and practical-related problems, which will help with this goal and assist in scoring well in the data based question of paper 1B. There is a glance at the Physics Extended Essay, should an experimental themed topic be chosen.
There is a brief look at how to use both Excel and the Nspire calculator to plot and analyse graphs. This is followed by some 30 real experiments that cover many areas of the syllabus, with ‘hands on’ tasks where the student reads the scales and meters etc, fills in the table and/or draws the graph – the best way to learn! Each experiment is followed by the author’s interpretation. The book offers advice on performing an experimentally based physics Extended Essay, as well as the Internal Assessment. There is a paraphrasing of the IB criteria and aspects to help keep the student on course, with advice as to how to achieve complete scores in each skill. Towards the end of the book are exercises (with answers) to help improve techniques with the data based question in Paper 1B.
This book should also be of interest to physics teachers who are new to the IB or those on a small budget, as ideas that work come with time and suitable experiments fortunately do not always need big spending. They could also use it for students who might have missed an actual hands-on experiment as a way of catching up and completing the practical scheme of work (PSOW).
