IB Physics SL Internal Assessment Example

The student stated a focused research question in a clear experimental context.

The student's method includes enough detail for another student to reconstruct most of the setup.

The student identified several relevant controls and used repeated trials to improve reliability.

The link between the research question and the final purpose could be made more explicit.

A few procedural details still need tightening, especially the release protocol and how the drop distance is kept identical.

Important controls such as axle friction, string slip/stretch, and effective winding radius are not fully addressed.

The student communicates the raw measurements and processed values clearly in tables with units and repeated trials.

The student's processing pathway from time to acceleration to moment of inertia is logically appropriate.

The student includes uncertainty treatment and graphical analysis, which strengthens the transparency of the work.

Some of the worked calculations are hard to audit because the steps are scattered or not introduced cleanly.

The uncertainty propagation is not fully rigorous, especially for the distance and final mean values.

There are a few interpretation issues, including the meaning of R² and the confidence placed in the fitted relationship.