January 27th, 2015

Science Fair Projects and Implied vs. Informed Consent – It’s Science Fair season at William G. Davis! Students are doing all kinds of inquiry projects and testing a wide range of hypotheses. Some projects require volunteers to do simple tasks such as complete an anonymous simple survey, pick a random number, follow a pattern, listen to music, or make a choice. For projects that are no-risk or extremely low-risk, all that is required is “Implied Consent”, that is the understanding among all parties that there is no risk, whether physical, mental or emotional from participating in the project. For other projects, where there may be some risk, such as performing a more complicated physical task/sport, or completing a more in-depth survey that may have implications, we must have Informed Consent, which would be in the form of a letter signed by a parent. Should you have any questions related to the ethics of a particular project, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s science teacher.