Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I am going to be conducting a sociology experiment that involves teens thoughts in cheating. When it’s okay to cheat, and multiple scenarios it’s possible to cheat in and whether they would and if they think it’s okay. I’m concerned on how I should collect this data. Would it be best to create a survey and have random students fill it out? Should I interview them? Does it matter if I randomly choose an equal amount of girls and boys from each lunch table? Should I stick to the cafeteria? Or should I venture out to different sites on campus? Sorry if this is a lot of questions, but Thank you for your help!

There are many ways to design this experiment.

One concern is you want your subjects to feel safe in answering the questions so that their answers are unbiased. I would suggest a blinded survey to ensure their identities are protected.

You could also compare answers across demographics. To do this, you would need surveys from multiple groups, such as lower classmen girls, upper classmen girls, lower classmen boys, upper classmen boys, etc. I would include a section on the form where they fill out demographic information so you can easily separate all of that out.

Where you collect these from will very much depend on the organization of your school and where you have access to your targeted groups.

Hi Karma279,

This isn't my area of expertise, but FYI we have a guide on projects with human subjects that you may find useful. Depending on your school/science fair rules there may be specific guidelines you need to follow for things like getting permission from study participants or making the data anonymous etc:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... egulations

-Ben