IB biology higher level summary: internal assessment and assessment model

01/14/2024

For more than 40 years, the IB teachers in Delhi has established a reputation for offering to demand, high-quality educational programmes that foster globally-minded youth capable of taking on the challenges of the twenty-first century and making positive contributions to the development of a more peaceful and better world.

Structure-function relationships are covered at all complexity levels in the higher-level biology course of the IB Diploma Programme. Pupils study a wide range of subjects to expand their knowledge of biology, including cell theory, genetics, plant science, and the chemical structure of organisms.

Students learn how scientists operate and interact with one another throughout this demanding course. Students also benefit from a variety of chances for cross-cultural scientific research and creative inquiry.

An IB tutor in Delhi from IBGA explains, the course is intended to:

• Offer information, practices, and methods typical of science and technology.
• Give students the ability to put into practice and employ a body of information, strategies, and tactics that define science and technology.
• Gain proficiency in analyzing, assessing, and synthesizing scientific data
• Cultivate an understanding of the importance of good teamwork and communication during scientific endeavors.
• Hone your investigative and experimental scientific abilities
• Help students acquire and use information and communication technology skills while studying science.
• Increase knowledge of the ethical, social, economic, moral, and environmental effects of applying science and technology.
• Cultivate an understanding of the opportunities and constraints related to science and scientists
• Promote knowledge of the connections between scientific fields and the general principles of the scientific approach.

Internal Assessment details

Students studying IB Biology are expected to conduct their own research, design, perform, and write up the results. An internal assessment is the name given to this project (IA). 

This study will take ten hours to complete, and the results will account for 20% of the final score for the IB biology programme (not the class grade).  After the course, the International Baccalaureate externally moderates the internal assessment, which is first evaluated by the teacher.

There is a vast array of potential investigations; each student is required to finish an investigation that is distinct from the others in the course and sufficiently different from them.  Students have the following options:

• Practical laboratory work done by hand
• Work in the field
• Using a spreadsheet for modeling and analysis
• taking information out of a database and analyzing it
• Making use of an electronic simulation

Strict IB criteria are used to evaluate (or "grade") the Internal Assessment.  It's quite a challenge for all IB science instructors worldwide to apply the same criteria in the same way! 

Schools must send specimens of graded learner lab results to IB to be tracked to ensure that everybody is abiding by the regulations and correctly applying the criteria.  Students' grades will be adjusted based on whether the instructor is too strict or too lax.

There is a 24-point maximum score for the International Baccalaureate Biology Internal Examination (IB marks, not the classroom grade book points, count towards the I.A. criteria).  Each assessment criterion includes a suitable range of marks in addition to level descriptors that describe particular achievement levels.

Assessment Model

To measure student progress towards the objectives of the Diploma Programme IB courses—which are to give students the following—the IB evaluates student work.

• a comprehensive, well-rounded, and rigorous academic programme of study
• the improvement of analytical and reflective abilities
• the improvement of research abilities
• the growth of self-sufficient learning abilities
• the growth of cross-cultural comprehension
• a university entrance qualification recognised worldwide

The purpose of the assessments is to gauge each student's comprehension of the following important ideas:

• Putting scientific terminology, procedures, and methods to use
• Formulating, analysing, and assessing scientific explanations, research questions, and predictions, as well as scientific methods and procedures.
• Exhibiting the manipulative abilities required to conduct scientific investigations with accuracy and safety, as well as the interpersonal qualities of cooperation, tenacity, and responsibility appropriate for successful scientific investigation and problem-solving.

The higher-level biology course according to an IB biology tutor in India is evaluated by adding the grades from both internal and external assessments.

To correctly answer even multiple-choice questions, students must grasp the meaning of each term or concept, demonstrating their comprehension of both simple facts and difficult concepts. No calculators are allowed during the multiple-choice test.

The practical or laboratory work completed by each student is evaluated internally. Students from various Group 4 subjects work together to address a scientific or technological topic as part of the Group 4 project, which takes place over 10 hours in the higher-level coursework of 240 hours.

This allows for the exchange of ideas and perspectives from various disciplines and helps to "encourage an understanding of the relationships between disciplines of science and the overarching characteristics of the scientific method."