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IA3 — Research Investigation

Weighting: 20%

What is a research investigation?

You evaluate a scientific claim by researching, analysing and interpreting secondary evidence from scientific texts. The goal is to form a justified conclusion about whether the claim is supported by the evidence.

Conditions

  • Time: 10 hours class time (not necessarily sequential)
  • Mode: Individual (some collaborative elements permitted — see below)
  • Response: Written report up to 2000 words, or multimodal presentation up to 11 minutes

What can be done collaboratively?

  • Selecting a claim
  • Identifying the relevant scientific concepts
  • Conducting research

All other stages must be completed individually — analysing data, interpreting evidence, evaluating claims, and writing the report.

Report structure

  1. Claim — clearly state the claim being evaluated
  2. Research question — a question that guides your investigation of the claim
  3. Evidence — present secondary data from credible scientific sources
  4. Analysis — examine the evidence to identify trends, patterns and relationships
  5. Interpretation — draw conclusions about the claim based on the evidence
  6. Evaluation — assess the quality and reliability of the evidence, discuss limitations
  7. Conclusion — a justified judgment about the validity of the claim
  8. Reference list — use credible, scientific sources

Assessment criteria

Criterion Focus
Research & Planning Claim, research question, quality of sources
Analysing Trends, patterns, relationships in secondary data
Evaluating Quality of evidence, reliability of sources, justified conclusion
Communicating Scientific language, conventions, referencing

Tips for success

Key advice

  • Choose a claim that can genuinely be evaluated with available evidence — not too broad, not too narrow
  • Use credible sources — peer-reviewed journals, government agencies, university research. Avoid blogs and opinion pieces
  • Don't just describe what sources say — analyse and evaluate the evidence
  • Consider whether the evidence supports, partially supports, or refutes the claim
  • Acknowledge limitations of your research approach
  • Reference correctly and consistently