Animal and Human Ethics
Science and technology fair investigations and CREST projects which involve humans or other animals must comply with ethical standards. Considering the ethics of a piece of work, and applying for approval if necessary, is a valuable learning experience for students.An Animal Ethics Approval committee for use by students, teachers and schools is now operational and can be contacted at animalethicscommittee@rsnz.org. Information about the Code of Ethical Conduct for the use of animals in schools and early childhood centres, guidelines and application forms can be found at www.nzase.org.nz
There are two main considerations for activities involving humans. The first is when humans are involved in activities such as tasting or smelling when the substances involved may be toxic or provoke an allergic reaction, or undergo exercise which may trigger unexpected effects in the subject; the second is when information such as weight, height, preferences etc is collected and presented - if this takes place then privacy must be ensured.
If your work involves humans, information regarding human ethics can be found by clicking here
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?
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.
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 following full ethics committee approval by an accredited committee. It is very unlikely that you will be doing such projects while still at school.Any project done without full ethics committee approval 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.
