LibGuides: IB Biology: Internal Assessment: Project Ideas

IB Teacher Websites

When looking through the ideas on these pages, make sure they are written for students graduating in 2016 and later.

International School of Prague
Example topics for the IB Biology Internal Assessment

Ideas!

Research often involves teams of scientists collaborating across continents. Now, using the power of the Internet, non-specialists are participating, too. Citizen scientists can view videos taken by scientists of animals in the wild or listen to audio files of whale songs and then act as volunteer classifiers. Citizen scientists can also join with others to make specific observations of the natural world, such as summer fireflies in New England or birds on Christmas Day.

The following are Citizen Science Projects that collect data. You may be able to access their data or get ideas for good research topics.

Bat Detective
Scientists use the help of visitors to the site to go through their recordings to pick out the different calls. The ultimate goal is to use these classifications to make a new automatic program that researchers all over the world can use to extract information out of their recordings, making it easier to track populations of bats. This will help in understanding how bat populations are being affected by global climate change.
Budburst
Budburst citizen scientists work together with research scientists, educators, and horticulturists to answer specific, timely, and critical ecological research questions by making careful observations of the timing of plant life cycle events. These life events differ depending upon the type of plant, but usually include leafing, flowering, and fruiting phases of plants as well as leaf color and senescence.These observations are used to better understand how plant species and ecosystems respond to changes in climate locally, regionally, and nationally.
Chimp & See
In Chimp & See, visitors to the website watch videos taken by various camera traps in Africa. As they mark the behavior of chimpanzees and other animals, they help researchers learn more about both the environment and human evolution.
COASST
Adapt for Thailand? Volunteers identify birds by their feet. COASST is a collaboration of citizens of coastal communities, natural resource management agencies and environmental organizations; University of Washington researchers translate individual data into baselines against which any impact—from human or natural origins—can be assessed.
Notes from Nature
This collection of thousands of specimen images, labels and ledgers from museum collections contain information about the where and when a species was found in the past. Visitors to the site help biologist transcribe that data and make it available for further use in biodiversity and conservation research.
Worm Watch Lab
Scientists used volunteers to view videos of nematode worms, and used the volunteers' classifications to help discover how genes affect worm behavior. These discoveries can help scientists understand human genes, too.

Cornell Lab of Orinthology
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a leader in the study, appreciation, and conservation of birds. Through their programs they aim to advance the understanding of nature and to engage people of all ages in learning about birds and protecting the planet. They host the eBird databse, in collaboration with organizations, regional experts, and users ("eBirders") all over the world.
eBird
is the world’s largest biodiversity-related citizen science project, with more than 100 million bird sightings contributed each year by eBirders around the world. eBird data document bird distribution, abundance, habitat use, and trends through checklist data collected within a simple, scientific framework. Birders enter when, where, and how they went birding, and then fill out a checklist of all the birds seen and heard during the outing. Access this database by creating an account with a username and password. eBird includes population data from The Great Backyard Bird Count, maps of citizen-created bird habitat from Habitat Network. bird songs and calls from Macaulay Library, nest camera data from NestWatch, and sightings at bird feeders from Project FeederWatch. These citizen science projects at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology provide a way for people to learn about birds, habitat, science, and conservation while contributing to real scientific studies.
Great Backyard Bird Count
Participants are asked to count birds for as little as 15 minutes (or as long as they wish) on one or more days of the four-day event and report their sightings online at birdcount.org. Each checklist submitted during the GBBC helps researchers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society learn more about how birds are doing, and how to protect them and the environment we share.Citizen scientists count for as little as 15 minutes in their own backyards to help Audubon expand their understanding of birds.
Habitat Network
Habitat Network is a citizen science project designed to cultivate a richer understanding of wildlife habitat, for both professional scientists and people concerned with their local environments. They collect data by asking individuals across the country to literally draw maps of their backyards, parks, farms, favorite birding locations, schools, and gardens. Participants then create new habitats for birds, then update their maps. The goal is to help people make better decisions about how to manage landscapes sustainably.
Macaulay Library
An extensive scientific archive of natural history audio, video, and photographs. Although the Macaulay Library is best known for its collection of bird songs and calls, the collection also includes amphibians, fishes, and mammals, and the library preserves recordings of each species’ behavior and natural history.
NestWatch
Volunteers help scientists at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology by collecting data on the successes and failures of nesting birds by tracking nests, clutches, broods, and fledglings. NestWatch is a nationwide monitoring program designed to track status and trends in the reproductive biology of birds, including when nesting occurs, number of eggs laid, how many eggs hatch, and how many hatchlings survive.