Environmental Systems and Societies subject report · May 2012

May 2012 extended essay reports Page 1 ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS AND SOCIETIES Overall grade boundaries Grade: E D C B A Mark range: 0 - 7 8 - 15 16 - 22 23 - 28 29 - 36 The range and suitability of the work submitted The guidelines state that the extended essay must refer to both ecosyst ems and human societies, and most extended essays did this. A wide range of essays varied in standard from excellent to very poor. Overall, the suitability of topics is continuing to improve from year to year - with a greater number of experimentally base d essays and better -focused literature based essays. However, a weakness of many essays was the breadth of the research question which could never be properly addressed in the length of the essay. The best essays tended to have two things in common; the s tudent had a genuine curiosity or interest in the selected topic and the investigation contain ed experimental or field work. Although these are not absolute requirements for the essay, environmental systems and societies is an experimental science and lend s itself to hands -on work. While literature -based essays are suitable for the task, those that rely exclusively on web -based sources run the risk of failing to adequately meet particular criteria. A wide range of topics was covered. Popular areas included:  energy – especially renewable energy (such as biomass) and nuclear power including the impacts of Fukushima, Japan on public perception and acceptance of nuclear energy.  organic farming vs. conventional/intense farming method  footprint and recycling, generally investigations carried out at school level.  biodiversity of local ecosystems or evaluation of specific protected areas  water pollution, generally using direct methods to monitor pollution but some candidates studied bio-indicators. The selection of a topic that was far too general, such as “Global warming and deforestation” may indeed represent major current environmental issues, but topics such as these are far too open-ended for an essay at this level. On the other hand, there are still some candi dates that submit essays that do not fulfil the minimum requirements for