2021/22 candidate record form, production log
and assessment record
Level 3 Extended Project (7993)
Please attach the form to your candidate’s work and keep it at the centre or send it to the
moderator as required. The declarations should be completed as indicated.
Centre number Centre name
Candidate number Candidate’s full name
Work submitted for assessment must be the candidate’s own. If candidates copy work, allow candidates to copy
from them, or cheat in any other way, they may be disqualified.
Candidate declaration
Have you received help/information from anyone other than subject teacher(s) to produce this work?
☐ No ☐ Yes (give details below or on a separate sheet if necessary).
Click here to enter text.
Please list below any books, leaflets or other materials (for example DVDs, software packages, internet
information) used to complete this work not acknowledged in the work itself. Presenting materials copied from other
sources without acknowledgement is regarded as deliberate deception.
N/A, all work is referenced in the reference list.
We may use examples of candidate’s work for standardisation or training purposes. Please see our privacy notice
for more information on how we use assessment data and on your rights under data privacy legislation.
I have read and understood the above. I confirm I produced the attached work without assistance other than that
which is acceptable under the scheme of assessment.
Candidate signature. Date 13/05/2022
Supervisor declaration
I confirm the candidate’s work was conducted under the conditions laid out by the specification. I have
authenticated the candidate’s work and am satisfied, (to the best of my knowledge) that the work produced is solely
that of the candidate.
AQA Education (AQA) is a registered charity (number 1073334) and a company limited by guarantee registered in 7993/CRF
England and Wales (number 3644723). Our registered address is AQA, Devas Street, Manchester M15 6EX.
, Candidate number Candidate’s full name
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Submission checklist
To be completed by the supervisor
To what extent would plant-based diets impact our health, the environment
Extended Project working title
and animal welfare?
To what extent does the animal agriculture industry impact health, the
Extended Project final title
environment and animal welfare?
Form of project
☐ Either written report
☐ Or Click here to enter text. and accompanying written report
Is this project part of a group project?
☐ No
☐ Yes If ‘Yes’, give brief details Click here to enter text.
Please note that failure to complete or submit a compulsory element may result in a mark of zero being
awarded.
Select/tic
Items that must be included Notes
k
1. A signed and completed Candidate record
☐ form, production log and assessment record
This document. All pages must be completed.
If the project product is an artefact or a
☐ 2. Research based written report production, an accompanying research based
written report is also required.
Eg photographs of artefact, investigation or
☐ 3. Evidence of the project product production; a piece of creative writing (artefact);
research based written report.
Presentation on the project process. Where the
project product is itself a presentation (for a
4. Evidence of a presentation within the
☐ production log
specified audience), a presentation on the
project process must also be delivered to a
non-specialist audience
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The taught skills element
To be completed by the supervisor
Outline details of taught skills
Record here details of relevant skills taught in a class/group and details of relevant skills taught individually to
this candidate as described in the specification. Continue on a separate sheet if necessary.
The EPQ scheme of work
Introductions
What is an EPQ, what do you have to do?
What is the EPQ, how is it assessed?
Generating ideas, using sources of information
Initial ideas, focusing and changing focus
Short-term and long-term planning
Researching widely, use of resources
Project Proposals A, B and C
Gathering and organising resources
Introduction to using data
Using data descriptively and analytically
Drawing conclusions; Structuring your work
Mid-term review and planning
Critical awareness (methodology)
Critical awareness (data and statistics)
Events management – the EPQ showcase
Presentation skills
Summary and Reflection
Final submission
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Record of marks
To be completed by the supervisor
Marks must be awarded in accordance with the instructions and criteria in the specification.
Summary information to show how the marks have been awarded should be given in the spaces below in addition
to comments in other pages of this document and any supporting information in the form of annotations on the
candidate’s work.
Maximum Mark
Skill area Supervisor’s supporting statement
mark awarded
Click Click here to enter text.
A01 Manage 10
.
A02 Use Click Click here to enter text.
10
resources .
A03 Develop and Click Click here to enter text.
20
realise .
Click Click here to enter text.
A04 Review 10
.
Click
Total mark 50
.
Supervisor’s concluding comments
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Internal moderation comments if appropriate
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Supervisor declaration
I confirm that no work assessed for the award of the marks above is also to be submitted, or has been submitted,
for any other accredited qualification(s).
Date
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Record of initial ideas
To be completed by the candidate
This page records initial meeting(s) with your supervisor to agree your project ideas. Additional pages can be
submitted if more than one idea has been explored.
My idea(s) for topic/title
Early initial ideas:
● History as exhibiting bias
● Euthanasia
● The science behind dreams
● Is there any truth in zodiac signs?
These ideas led to:
● Ruled off the science based ideas (as this was something I was interested in but none of my a-levels are
STEM based so it didn’t make sense for me to dedicate time to doing an EPQ on that topic)
● It was heavily implied an EPQ involved with a future career should be chosen, but I started to think
outside the box, more concerned with choosing an EPQ surrounding an interest I am passionate and
dedicated to.
● I wanted to choose a topic that I act upon and incorporate into my life now, not something relating to a
possible future interest of mine, especially since I am not entirely sure of what career I would want to go
into.
● This thought led me to think about my hobbies and interests, things I dedicate my own time to, instead of
just things relating to school.
● I made a list of my interests and hobbies, trying to stray away from academic-motivated topics (such as
topics related to future employment). This was how the zodiac sign question came about, something that
is not taught as a subject at school, but there was not much information out there.
● This is when I had a spark of ideas surrounding my dedication to being a vegetarian for six years, it is
something I have always been passionate and interested in.
● I then created a topic surrounding veganism and how it can impact your health.
● I was finally set on this EPQ idea when I had a lesson in philosophy surrounding the dilemma of whether
it was ethically right to eat animals and that lesson made me more eager to research more in my EPQ,
and sparked the idea that maybe, instead of just the impact of health, I could explore the impact on
animals and their lives by being vegan and standing up to the meat industry in that way.
My key motivation & focus: The best EPQ question for me would be a topic that applies to everyone, and
not one that is specialised in a certain field or career. I wanted a topic that was universal and applied to all
people, regardless of your background and characteristics. The topic I chose in the end, plant-based diets
and their effects, was one which presented information all people should be aware of to make a
significant and informed decision with knowledge surrounding the impact they make across the world
just by what they choose to consume.
Finalised idea:
● Initial question was: ‘How would veganism impact the world?’
● Starting points for research:
○ What the Health - documentary (helped me decide on the section of health in my essay)
○ Cowspiracy: the Sustainability Secret - documentary (helped me decide on the section of the
environment in my essay)
○ 101 Reasons to go Vegan - documentary (helped me decide on the section of animal wellbeing in
my essay)
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● I watched all three of these documentaries when I was first deciding to switch to being vegetarian so I
wanted to rewatch and make notes from them as initial basic interest and research.
● Upon doing so, it sparked again the three main reasons I became a vegetarian: health, the environment
and animal welfare, helping me decide my question focus later on.
My ideas for research and development of my project
Where I looked for research:
● Modern-day documentaries were an ideal source of information for my EPQ. It was my starting point that
gave me a way into the topic.
● There were so many documentaries and above all, they were created in an engaging format and aimed at
a vast number of people of all wealth classes and backgrounds, mirroring my key motivation for a topic
that everyone should know about, regardless of who you are.
● I also wished to use many scientific studies and statistics (I looked on PubMed as a starting point) and
planned that these studies would make up most of my references (about 65%-70%).
● Many documentaries’ findings were also based around particular scientists and their own studies and
statistics, so it created a helpful link between multiple types of sources.
● At the very beginning of my EPQ, I watched ‘What the Health’, ‘Cowspiracy: the Sustainability Secret’ and
‘101 Reasons to go Vegan’, and made notes from these documentaries at the very start of my EPQ.
These notes formed my essay plan (suggested by my supervisor) which is enclosed as well.
● I also made a table of links to databases/articles/studies/videos that I looked at or wanted to use later as
sources for my EPQ. It states the type of source, the name, the authors/directors, date and a link to help
with my reference list. It also really aided me when being selective with what sources to pick and use,
based on reliability.
● Near the end of my EPQ, I then used this original table of all my sources to make a source evaluation
table which is enclosed. I chose one example of each type of source (documentary, website article and
scientific study, as well as one source that I did not use and evaluated it). I only chose to evaluate four
in-depth because overall I have 60 sources, so I chose one major source of each category to evaluate all
types together.
● One thing that is important to note is that I also looked for evidence that could suggest plant-based diets
are not the way forward. However, it was incredibly interesting to find that all the evidence was suggesting
the same thing: that plant-based diets are the best solution to modern-day problems.
● Even possible arguments against plant-based diets were proven wrong on websites, and this showed me
that opposing opinions are really less reliable and less valuable against sources in favour of plant-based
diets.
● I also created a Gantt chart (enclosed) that tracked my progress to help with the development of my
project.
One of the main purposes of writing my EPQ is to debunk the stigma based around vegan and vegetarian diets,
and actually explore how positive it can be on not just yourself but others as well, and could solve increasingly
urgent problems going on in current affairs of today.
I also thought that my topic could cover vast areas of industries in our world as my three main topics of my essay:
health, environment, and animal welfare have several links to other topics. The meat and pharmaceutical industry
were also hit topics of my EPQ, as well as disease exploration such as cancer and heart disease which is
incredibly dependent on diet.
Once I settled on all components of my essay:
● Health
● Meat industry
● Pharmaceutical industry
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● Climate change
● Environment
● Animal welfare
I created my first ever EPQ question: ‘How does veganism impact the world?’ which interlinks all those
components together under the title of veganism.
My summary of the comments and advice from my supervisor
My supervisor initially discussed the focus of the question, which at the time was ‘How does veganism impact the
world?’ and advised me to edit it to make the focus more specific. She advised that there are so many areas in
which veganism affects the planet, and suggested I make the question more distinct and determined in terms of
the areas I will discuss in my essay. It was also advised that just the focus of the lifestyle of a vegan may shut off
my ability to refer to other less-extreme diets such as vegetarianism and pescetarianism, so the term ‘veganism’
in the question was advised to be changed in this way as well. Finally, ‘How’ was suggested to also be changed
to be more broadened to ‘To what extent’, to be able to add more analysis into my essay more effectively. The
structure of my essay was also discussed. I explained to my supervisor that when writing an essay it can be easy
for the paragraphs to become too large and hard to follow, and therefore I suggested I pick three overall themes
(which will be written in my question) and break these three themes down into smaller subtopics. She supported
this idea of mine. This meant that when I would write my essay, it would be structured and divided into three
sections, and then two or more subtopics would be underneath the title of each section, each subtopic being a
paragraph.
Modifications I have made as a result of my discussion with my supervisor
My original question, ‘How would veganism impact the world?’ was modified in three ways. Firstly, veganism was
changed to ‘plant-based diets’ in order to discuss, analyse and contrast different types of diets, the main ones
being veganism, vegetarianism, and pescetarianism. Secondly, ‘the world’ was too broad, and so I settled on
three main themes of my EPQ essay: health, the environment and animal welfare. I changed ‘How’ to become ‘To
what extent’ so I would be able to argue, discuss and analyse more effectively. Therefore, the working question
became ‘To what extent would plant-based diets influence our health, the environment and animal welfare?’.
Secondly, the structure plan of my essay was going to be edited. I was going to do an introduction, three main
body paragraphs and a conclusion. Upon speaking with my supervisor, we discussed having subsections and
splitting each paragraph into further subtopics. For example, the paragraph on the environment can be split
further into the topics of carbon emissions, water usage and deforestation.
Date 2/12/21
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