IB Biology IA Topic Ideas

Are you struggling with choosing your topic for your IB Biology IA? Don’t worry, we’ve all been there. Finding a topic is one of the – if not THE – most important part of writing your IA, so we want to make sure that you get it right! Luckily, there are so many great topics to choose from, and we’ve asked some of our top team to note down some topics that might inspire your own incredible research!

NOTE: These topics are purely meant as inspiration and are not to be chosen blindly. Even though many of these topics led to high scores for some of our graduates in the past, it is important that you listen to the advice of your subject teacher before choosing any topic!

Biology IA Ideas with Independent Variables

• Look at the genetic similarities and differences between species, kingdoms, phylas, classes, genuses, orders, families, and domains.
• Testing global warming: How does CO2, water vapour, oxygen, or any other variable affect temperature inside a cutoff bottle exposed to simulated sunlight?
• Describe how the primary productivity of algae changes with temperature, algae concentration, other aquatic plants, salinity, nutrients, and any other variables you may want to consider.
• How does varying the gel concentrations of agarose affect DNA migration through a gel?
• Effect of BMI on skin surface temperature in various body areas on rate of recovery once exposed to cold.
• How does sudden change in body position affect heart rate and baroreceptor feedback?
• How do the respiration rates of baker’s yeast and wine yeast in various sugar solutions compare?
• How do the buffering actions of milk, yogurt, juices, detergents etc. compare?
• Do our reaction times slow down with age?
• Can we slow down the decaying times of vegetables? Can temperature, humidity, or exposure to sunlight affect how quickly vegetables decay?
• What is the effect of the salt concentration on germination of different types of seeds?
• What happens after the best-by date of dairy products?
• Comparative study between 5 different species of animals using BLAST analysis to determine evolutionary history
• What is the respective change of allele frequency when initial frequencies are manipulated?
• Analysing the impact of river pollution on marine life.
• Determine the effect of glucose concentration on the rate of osmosis.
• What is the effect of pests on the diversity of plants in a lawn?
• What is the effect of isotonic drinks on rehydration and recovery after exercise?
• What is the difference in the CO2 levels exhaled before and after enduring physical exercise?
• Testing the effectiveness of different types of toothpaste in inhibiting the growth of different types of bacteria.
• The effect of temperature / light on fruit ripening
• Exploring stomatal density in a variety of conditions
• Testing the effectiveness of toothpaste types
• Investigating the effect of smoke water on the germination and growth of E.pilularis
• Exploring the effect of sunlight on biomass
• Exploring effect of light levels on the predation of the peppered moth
• Investigating the effect of different light intensities on water weeds
• How do different antibiotics interact with the process of seed germination?
• Determining the effect of time on the plasmolysis of potatoes
• Exploring mollusc shapes with regards to an external variable e.g. location on shore

So there we have it! 30 Biology IA topic ideas to get your lab report started! Still feeling a bit uneasy about the task ahead? Fear not, we have elite Biology tutors who can assist you through the process!