HIL

 toc

March 18, 2009
Hye In's Extended Essay. My chosen subject for Extended Essay is biology and my supervisor is Mrs.Hall.

March 28, 2009
1. I have carefully read the IB description of my selected subject and the criteria and these are the main points I need to consider: - If the topic can be dealt with from a number of perspectives (such as biological, medical, social, economical), I need to focus on biological aspects. - Essays can be based on data collected by the student or data obtained from literature and manipulated or analyzed in an original way by the student. - If any practical work carried out in the laboratory or fieldwork is included, I need to include a clear description of the experimental procedure. - I need to provide evidence in the essay of my personal contributions to the research approach and to the selection of the methods used. - The raw data must be analyzed, processed and presented in a way that relates clearly and directly to the central argument of the essay. - The main body of the essay should consist of an argument or evaluation based on the data presented and I need to point out the significant of any graphs, tables or diagrams. - I need to provide some explanation of unexpected outcomes, but this should not form a major part of the discussion. - In the analysis, I should describe and explain the limitations imposed on the research by different factors. - If the original research question is not fully answered by the investigation, I should point out unresolved issues and make suggestions as to how these might be further investigated.

2. I have read some extended essays: Examples from the subject essays as provided by the IB: - “Can one-hour-long light pulses applied during the night shift the phase of circadian rhythms in the locomotor activity of Siberian Hamsters?” by Sangkyun Cho Strengths: This essay includes a very clear structure, as well as good citations and bibliography. - “Is there any correlation between the population density of Pandanus heliacorpus and the population size of Macrobrachium rosenbergii sp.?” Strengths: This essay consists of various diagrams, pictures, calculations, tables and graphs that all support his discussion. It also includes both quantitative and qualitative data in a well organized form, as well as a detailed analysis. - “The effect of age and gender on the photoreceptor cells in the human retina” by J. Gasparini Strengths: This essay has various tables and graphs that are relevant to her discussion. It also provides interesting appendixes including a lot of pictures, tables and other evidences that helps understanding o her discussion.

3. I have tried some Google search strategies and these are what I tried: - Google directory [] - Google Advanced []  4. I have explored other search engines: - Ask.com [] - Yahoo [] - Answers.com [] 

5. I tried some databases: - Intute   - Public Library of Science  <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: '맑은 고딕';">- National Science Digital Library <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: '맑은 고딕';">- Bentham Science Publications <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="msobookmark: OLE_LINK1; msobidifontsize: 11.0pt; msoasciithemefont: minor-latin; msofareastthemefont: minor-fareast; msohansithemefont: minor-latin; msobidifontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msobidithemefont: minor-bidi; msoansilanguage: EN-US; msofareastlanguage: KO; msobidilanguage: AR-SA;">- Directory of Open Access Journals __<span style="color: #2000ef; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">[] __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: '맑은 고딕';">Strengths: Some of these databases provide some good journals of different topics, which helped me to get access to some interesting topics and develop some possible topics for my extended essay. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">

April 8, 2009
I met my supervisor Mrs.Hall. I wanted to do something related to genetics, but I was not sure what kind of experiment I need to do and I was even not sure what possible experiments I can conduct. So I discussed with Mrs.Hall about this and she suggested me some possible ways. Mrs.Hall also showed me equipments that I could use and provided me a lot of books that might help me narrow down my topic. I read some books to get some ideas about what I would do. I was actually quite surprised, because there were various experiments and topics that I could do. Of course, I can not just copy the experiment on the book directly, but this gave me ideas how I will design my own experiment and topic. I was especially interested in genetic investigations using drosophila, the fruit fly. But before drawing a hasty decision, I decided to read more books and do more research to find some other interesting topics or to narrow down this topic.

April 15, 2009
I made a personal account in NoodleBib.