Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I am a senior in high school, and I am doing a human behavior project, and my question is "how does having a cleft lip effect the self-image of adolescents?" (For "adolescent", I am using the age range of 13-18 ). Being born with a cleft lip, I thought the project would be very interesting.

To gather data, I am using a basic survey titled "Is your self-image positive or negative" out of Mark Daniel's Self-Scoring Emotional Intelligence Tests. It's only 12 questions long, but will give me a good enough idea of their self-image.

I am mailing the surveys to my subjects, however due to privacy laws, I cannot personally mail them. So, I am working with somebody from Johns Hopkins Hospital who works with cleft children and has the addresses of the subjects I intend to survey. I am surveying 40 adolescents with cleft lip and 40 without. However, I am "blinding" the subjects and not letting them know the experiment has to do with having a cleft.

I am posting to ask for any suggestions or comments which might make my project better. I haven't started experimenting yet, so I can change my research plan.

Thanks.

Hi dcmcgarty,

I think your topic is very interesting and very well thought-out. The design sounds fine, and I particularly like use of the EQ test.

Just to make sure, you'll have each subject fill out an informed consent form, correct? I understand that you do not want to let them know the true nature of your experiment since that may bias the results. However, you still have to describe the project generally and let them know what you'll do with the data.

If you have any questions about SRC guidelines and informed consent, please post back here and we'll be happy to help you out.

Otherwise, good job designing a good experiment and best of luck with collecting the data.

Linh

Your experiment sounds very interesting. However, if you are taking this to a science fair, make sure you get all the necessary paperwork filled out. You should be able to get it off the fair website. Even though you are only conducting a survey, you will still need to fill out forms since you are using human subjects.

Sonia

Hi! I just wanted to say that your topic sounds really interesting. My 6th grade younger brother has a cleft lip and I definatley think it has an impact on his self-image. Anyway, good luck with the project.

-Alex