25 Jun ESS IA Investigation Ideas: Feasibility and Planning
Reviewed 4 October 2026 · Current ESS SL and HL course, first assessment 2026.
These ESS IA investigation ideas are starting points for your own planning, not completed student reports or verified high-scoring exemplars. Choose a relevant environmental issue, a focused question and evidence you can access and analyse.
ESS IA investigation ideas: refine the issue first
An investigation should connect to environmental systems and societies. It does not have to address a problem in your own neighbourhood: an accessible secondary dataset may support a question in another context. Equally, a laboratory measurement needs a clear environmental connection rather than being a disconnected chemistry or physics exercise.
The current SL and HL report has a maximum of 3,000 words and is assessed using six criteria for 30 marks. It contributes 25% at SL and 20% at HL. Read the official IB ESS guide and our current IA criteria guide with your teacher before planning.
Five directions to develop
Soil conditions
Define a soil property, a comparison and a sampling context. A relationship between pH and another soil measure may involve several influences, so explain why the question matters and what the evidence could establish. Check equipment and consistent sampling before committing.
Plant diversity in contrasting habitats
Compare a defined ecological measure using consistent sampling and suitable identification. Specify the habitat conditions and justify sample selection. Differences in diversity cannot automatically be attributed to one factor such as management.
Roads and organisms
Investigate a defined measure of abundance or distribution at safely accessible locations. Consider habitat differences, sampling time and detectability. A count during one visit is not necessarily a population-size estimate. Avoid unsafe roadside sampling or unnecessary disturbance.
School resource use
Use a clearly specified measure such as food-waste mass per meal or energy use per occupied day. Obtain permission and check that records are comparable. If you use a footprint calculator, explain its assumptions: the output is a modelled estimate, not a direct measurement of every environmental impact.
Historical air-quality data
A question about air quality during pandemic restrictions needs a defined pollutant, location, period and reliable records. Consider weather, seasonality, station changes and other influences. A before-and-after comparison alone does not establish that restrictions caused the observed change.
The ideas above require refinement and a feasibility check. No topic guarantees a grade, and there is no universal sample size or analysis method that works for every investigation.
Turn a theme into a research plan
- Explain the environmental issue and its relevance.
- State a focused question with a defined context and measure or comparison.
- Inspect available data or run a small pilot.
- Choose a method and processing steps that answer the question.
- Identify likely limitations, safety needs and permissions.
- Discuss the plan with your school teacher.
For surveys and existing datasets, use our secondary-data and survey planning guide. For an initial checklist, read how to choose an ESS IA topic.
Plan strategy and perspectives
Research an existing or developing strategy addressing an issue central to your investigation. Explain a tension between perspectives and how it affects environmental or societal outcomes. For a school waste issue, for example, examine a real policy and evidence about waste-reduction aims alongside concerns about convenience or cost.
Strategy is a separate criterion; it does not replace evaluating the method and data. The official IB course update explains the revised emphasis on perspectives.
Discuss your next step in an ESS IA lesson
Bring a proposed question, a sample of your dataset or pilot observations to Marija Maletz. Individual ESS IA guidance can help you assess feasibility and understand the criteria. Your research decisions, analysis and writing remain your own.
Compare our worked planning illustration if you would like to see how a question and method fit together. It supplies no invented results or assessed grade.
Need help applying this to your ESS work?
Explore online IB ESS tutoring for SL and HL with Marija Maletz or request a free 20-minute trial. Bring your level, the question or topic you find difficult, and your availability.
No Comments