Internal Assessment
The purpose of your Internal Assessment is to show the examiners the skills you have learnt along with how you can relate those to a specific place. You are required to undertake fieldwork which collects primary data and to develop a written report based on a fieldwork question. We will be completing quite a traditional river study.
Rationale
"The purpose of the internally assessed fieldwork is to amplify, reinforce and extend principal geographic concepts and skills taught in class. Fieldwork is intended to enrich the study of particular themes within the course." (IBO DP Geography Guide. Page 66)
Fieldwork activities allow students to practise many of the skills listed for internal assessment in the 'Geographic Skills' section of the guide and to develop specific skills appropriate to the chosen fieldwork question." (IBO DP Geography Guide. Page 67)
What's it Worth?
Your Geography Internal Assessment is worth 25% of your final grade if you are a Standard Level student and 20% if you are Higher Level Student. Either way it is a substantial percentage of your final grade and you should be working hard on it.
Time
Officially we should spend 20 hours of teaching on this. At least 8 of those hours will spend in the river collecting data. The other hours will come from the collapsed week (3-4 hours), a lesson or two of preparation before we go out (3 hours) and the remaining 6 hours on our return in class. A lot of this work will be done at home and you need to build this into your usual school week.
Reports
Your first semester grades of Year 13 will be based on your Internal Assessment performance.