IB DP Physics skill pack: designing an investigation, SL and HL, first assessment 2025. Research question, hypothesis, variable table, method, safety line: the written acts internal assessment Criterion 1 is marked on, 6 of its 24 marks. 33 answered items, 43 student pages.

What this pack is, and what it is not

The IB asks these skills to be practised inside the topics that need them, so this is a supplement to integrated teaching, not a taught unit of the course. It is reference and remedial material for the written half of an investigation: every act in it is on paper, not at the bench.

This pack is worked, not taught: the 345 minutes shown is student working time across the practice bank, not classroom delivery time. Six sittings of about 50, 50, 60, 55, 60 and 70 minutes, each break on a page boundary so each can be set on its own.

What students learn:

• A research question naming both variables, the system and the range, and a hypothesis that explains why
• A variable table whose control column carries an action, not an intention
• A range, an interval, repeats and a precision, each with its reason
• A method another student could repeat, and a safety line with the action taken about each issue

Six rule cards with a worked example each, then a fault hunt on a whole plan and a pilot. Three tiers: six drill tables, 77 answered cells; twelve applied items, 43 lettered parts; four multiple-choice items and three exam-style questions, 45 marks.

IB skills (Inquiry 1: Exploring and designing, with Tool 1 and Tool 3). Taught: research questions and hypotheses; predictions explained from the physics; dependent, independent and control variables; the range and quantity of measurements; a valid methodology; safety, ethical and environmental issues. Practised: the four shapes of investigation; piloting; constant conditions; calibration; selecting sufficient and relevant sources; percentage uncertainty and its propagation; linearizing and interpreting graphs.

What’s included:

• Student Worksheet, 43 pages, colour and B&W
• Teacher Key, 60 pages, every item answered, marking guidance beside each
• The editable worksheet, a self-contained HTML file

Worksheet and key are two projections of one source, so no answer file can drift. Opens in any browser, nothing to install, worksheet editable. It declares no topic and no understanding: this belongs to the IB skills in the study of physics. Grades 11-12 (ages 16-19), as homework, reference or revision.

Related resources:

• Measuring the Acceleration of Free Fall, the practical this plans for (free)
• Uncertainties, the pack behind the precision decisions
• Uncertainties on a Graph, for the graph a hypothesis names