EXTENDED ESSAY
All IB Diploma students complete an extended essay (EE) and should you choose to base yours around Design, this page will help to guide you through choosing an appropriate essay focus, research question and explain the planning process.
CHOOSING AN ESSAY TOPIC
The topic you select should be related to Design, meaning that it could be something that focuses on the investigation or exploration or one aspect or area within design and/or be problem-focused, ultimately providing a testable solution. Either way, it must be explorative, reflective and evaluative and follow the design design process and thinking of that found in the design cycle.
Successful essays tend to be based on an area of study that students have a personal interest within and/or some prior experience of knowledge so look to yourself and your own interests when attempting to identify an essay focus.
YOUR RESEARCH QUESTION
Your EE should be organised and focused around a research question as this is what guides your inquiry and is the reason for doing said inquiry.
Your Research Question should be:
Related to Design Technology content - look at what you cover elsewhere in the course, particulary topics 1, 4 and 7.
Specific enough that authentic research and testing can be undertaken
Provide a lens or perspective through which to engage with the inquiry
Be stated somewhere in the introduction
RESEARCHING FOR YOUR ESSAY
Your EE will need to include evidence of primary and secondary research if you hope to achieve a score within the top boundary. You should use this research to inform and support decisions and opinions made throughout your essay.
Why is primary research so important?
Without primary research, you are basing all of your statements and decisions on the work of others. It is important to actively collect data and information yourself that is relevant to your essay as this form the foundations of every good EE.
What does primary research look like?
conducting performance based tests for data collection
testing various existing products to determine their performance characteristics
testing various materials to determine their performance characteristics
testing various models, that you design, to determine their performance characteristics
interviewing several experts in the field in order to understand the scope of a problem or design context.
*Ensure that all sources of research and information, including images are cited correctly and appropriately.
SUGGESTED EE FORMATS
Option 1 - Problem Focused
This EE option will have a product or system that works towards solving a problem as the focus and end goal.
This type of EE should follow the following format:
Introduction: Describe the design problem and the context; Introduce the RQ; Identify parameters or specifications for a solution
Develop Ideas: Include several sketches that outline possible solutions; *These do not need to be as extensive as those for your IA.
Create a Solution: Include planning drawings and evidence of the final manufactured product
Present the Solution for testing and evaluation by the user group; gather testing data.
Evaluate the success of the solution in solving or understanding the RQ, and suggest improvements
Option 2 - Inquiry Focused
This EE option will focus on a process, material, or product in order to analyse and evaluate it.
This type of EE should follow the following format:
Introduction: Describe the design problem and the context; Introduce the RQ; Identify the direct connections to the DT Topic areas
Develop a testing method and apparatus. This should allow you to gather accurate and detailed data.
Gather data using testing apparatus, gather and record the data
Analyse and evaluate the data, and connect it back to the DT Topic areas.
An example research question from this type of EE is:
"To what extent can design systems reduce plastic waste specific to board markers used in schools?"
OR
"To what extent can ergonomic design improve performance, specific to gardening hand trowels "
An example research question from this type of EE is:
"To what extent has technology empowered the sensory impaired in the workplace?
OR
"To what extent have designs of the past influenced the success of those in the future, specific to the work of Dieter Rams and Jony Ive"
INSPIRATION
NERI OXMAN
PARAMETRIC CHEMISTRY: A SCIENTIFIC DESIGN FRAMEWORK FOR 3D PRINTING BIOCOMPATIBLE MULTI-FUNCTIONAL MATERIAL COMBINATIONS
Neri Oxman tested combinations of materials to see which would be most suitable to create the large, organic structure, Biopolymer Pavilion. This kind of materials testing would make for a great EE as there is opportunity to gather lots of useful data and the final outcome could be conclusive and directly answer the research question. See a similar EE here (glass based).
READ MORE about Neri Oxman's project.
