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Ethics
Approval
- CREST projects must meet commonly accepted
ethical standards.
- Students must consider these before a project
involving human or animal participants can be approved.
- Considering ethics is a very good learning
experience for students.
Will you need ethics
approval?
Yes / No
- If you need ethics approval, you must apply for
and obtain approval before you begin your investigation.
- Any activity in schools and early childhood
centres in which a live animal [mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, fish
(bony or cartilagineous), octopus, squid, crab (including half crab),
lobster, crayfish (including freshwater crayfish), mammalian, avian or
reptilian foetus in the last half of gestation or development, or
marsupial pouched young as defined in the Animal Welfare Act 1999] is
used for teaching or research requires ethical approval.
Animal Ethics:
Information on the animal ethics, the definition of an animal within
the Animal Welfare Act, guidelines, examples and application forms can
be found at http://www.nzase.org.nz/ethics.html
Human Ethics:
Interim Guidelines for students, teachers and parents
- Will your
investigation involve yourself or other people in:
- tasting, touching or smelling different foods
or other substances?
- taking any medicines, drugs or other
substances?
- applying any substance to their bodies?
- undergoing any physical or medical tests?
- giving you any information of a personal,
private of confidential nature?
- giving information that could identify them?
If it does then you
must think about the safety of yourself and the participants involved.
- How important
is research design?
People should only be asked to contribute to research that will give
meaningful results. Design the research carefully and think about
how you are going to use or analyse the results before you ask people
to contribute to your work by being research participants.
If your project involves asking questions, you could try them first on
your friends or relatives to determine whether they appear reasonable
and acceptable, particularly from a stranger if that is how it will be
posed.
- What information do I need to give my research
participants?
When you ask people to participate in your research, you need to tell
them, in a language they can easily understand:
- the purpose of your research
- what will be required of them
- what risks or benefits there will be to them if
they agree to work with you
- that they can withdraw from your research at
any time
- if you are collecting information about people
they should know beforehand whether or not the information can be
linked to a particular person, what you will do with that information,
who else will see it, and how you will dispose of your records when the
project is over.
It is best to give this information to people in a written form and to
give them a chance to think about it and to ask any questions, before
they make any decisions.
- What level of risk to research participants is
reasonable?
Any research that involves bodily fluids or the ingesting of material
(eg such as taking any kind of medication, ingesting substances,
testing body tissue, saliva, skin scrapes, use of pain or deprivation
of basic food or drink) should only
be done under the guidance of a medical person. It is very
unlikely that you will be doing such projects while still at school.
Any project should only involve minimal risk ie any adverse effect
should be very small, and the probability of that effect occurring
should be low. For instance, if one is asking people for
information, it should only be the sort of information it would be
safe, easily volunteered and appropriate to ask in an ordinary
conversation, or if you are asking people to exert themselves,
physically it should only be to a level that that person might do in
everyday life.
- Who needs to
give permission (or consent) for someone to participate in research?
A parent or guardian needs to give their permission for anybody under
16, as well as the young person agreeing. The parent or guardian
needs to have all the information that you would give a research
participant. You should keep records of who has given consent and how
it has been given whenever the research involves more than observation
of individuals in their normal activities.
Human Ethics and Your CREST Project
CREST is about encouraging good practice so you might like to consider
these general ethical principles when planning your project
- Respect for your participants
- People do not have to help you with your
research and they do not have to give you a reason. If you are
conducting a class survey it can’t be compulsory to participate.
- You need to understand the cultural and
religious beliefs of your participants and make sure your research is
not disrespectful or offensive
- All the data belongs to the respondents so it
is nice to give them a summary of your final research finding at the
end so they share in what you found out.
- Minimise harm to the participants
- Harm can be things like pain, stress, fatigue,
emotional distress, and embarrassment. Think about what you want
to do in terms of the harm it could cause. The best way to do
this is to test your ideas with your CREST group (teacher, consultant/s
and assessor). That way you will get a range of opinions for you
to consider. Once you have a plan you should ask people from your
participant group how they would feel about the activities or questions
you propose.
- You may need to alter your design to minimise
the harm. For example if you are doing a fitness test and
collecting weight data would you do this in public or test each person
on their own?
- Informed and Voluntary Consent
- Participants should give signed informed
consent. You should keep these safely until the end of your
project
- You must give them enough information about
your project and testing you want to do for them to make a good
decision.
- They must not feel pressured to participate in
the project.
- It is best if the information given to them in
advance of the research, in written form, so they have time to think
about it.
- Participants can withdraw at any time without
giving you a reason and you should return any data already collected
unless they say you can keep it.
- Respects for Privacy and Confidentiality
- If the person could be identified they must
give their consent. If you want to use the data in a way they could be
identified, use photos of them or video material you should get their
written permission
- You must keep private and confidential any
information you are given.
- Where are you going to store your information
= locked filing cabinet
- What is the data going to be used for= your
CREST project
- How will it be destroyed after the project =
shredder or burnt.
- Who else will see the raw data = you , your
teacher or maybe your consultant.
- It is good practice to tell your participants
this information when they are giving their consent, by putting on your
information form.
- Avoidance of Unnecessary Deception
- Sometimes it is necessary to hide the true
reason for the research in order to collect valid data. This is a
very rare occasion but if it is necessary and the deception will not
cause harm then it can be done. You should make sure that the
participants are told as soon as possible what the real reason for the
research was. Ideally this should be before they leave the testing room.
- Social and Cultural Sensitivity
- It is very easy to only see things from our own
cultural and religious perspective. Do some research and
consultant with people from the group you wish to research. Be
sensitive to what you are being told is important to them when you are
planning your project and then check you plan with your experts.
Some Other Points to
Think About
- If your school has a Human Ethics committee
then you are required to submit an application if their guidelines
require it.
- You may like to ask your consultant if they
require your project to go through their organisations Human Ethics
Committee. If they do, ask them to help you with this
process. This is an excellent CREST learning opportunity.
- If you are dealing with a group that is unable
to give informed consent then you need to be especially careful.
If working with children (under 16) then you need to get their parents
informed consent as well as that of the participant. Make sure you give
age appropriate information to the participants.
- While it is exciting to discuss your project
with friends and family you should remember to respect the privacy of
the participants especially if they go to your school and could be
identified by others.
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