For PreAP Biology this section will represent some form of a graph. Please refer to the Data and Graphing Organizer to help you determine the best graph type to use. NOTE: graphing points you do not have will automatically lose you credit for this entire section regardless of what else has been done in this section. Graphing to the origin when you do not have this as a point is expressly prohibited and absolutely bad practice. Rarely will PreAP biology students have any number set for the origin.
Graphs must be at least 12cm x 12cm. Graphs and all associated titles must fit within the 2.5cm margin required for all lab reports.
Do not graph your raw data. Your graph should be of the appropriate processed data. There is an exception to this statement and that is when your raw data indicates the need for a scatter plot. If this is the case, then graph the raw data, but you must include a best-fit line.
From the IB Biology Guide "It might be that the data is already in a form suitable for graphical presentation, for example, distance travelled by woodlice against temperature. If the raw data is represented in this way and a best-fit line graph is drawn, the raw data has been processed. Plotting raw data does not constitute processing data."
Here's a more technical explanation: "Students are expected to decide upon a suitable presentation format themselves (for example, spreadsheet, table, graph, chart, flow diagram, and so on). There should be clear, unambiguous headings for calculations, tables or graphs. Graphs need to have appropriate scales, labelled axes with units, and accurately plotted data points with a suitable best-fit line or curve (not a scattergraph with data-point to data-point connecting lines). Students should present the data so that all the stages to the final result can be followed. Inclusion of metric/SI units is expected for final derived quantities, which should be expressed to the correct number of significant figures. The uncertainties associated with the raw data must be taken into account. The treatment of uncertainties in graphical analysis requires the construction of appropriate best-fit lines. The complete fulfillment of aspect 3 does not require students to draw lines of minimum and maximum fit to the data points, to include error bars or to combine errors through root mean squared calculations. Although error bars on data points (for example, standard error) are not expected, they are a perfectly acceptable way of expressing the degree of uncertainty in the data. In order to fulfill aspect 3 completely, students should include a treatment of uncertainties and errors with their processed data, where relevant." (from from IBO Diploma Programme Biology Guide First Examinations 2009, Clarifications of IA criteria, page 27-28).