Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

hello again. My partner and I have been told that for some complicated reasons involving liability, we aren't allowed to do an experiment that involves human testing. So, we were wondering if there are any similar topics that don't invlove the use of human testing. Maybe something that relates to reaction time or reflexes. Our previous question was "Do humand react faster to sight or sound?", but now we need a new one. Thanks for your help.

Alex

Hi!

Liability? What kind of experiments were you going to perform on people? Most experiments that I can think of don't have any issues with liability. For example you can just take sight and sound test and it won't hurt anyone. Anyways, here are some sites that have some interesting experiments:

1. https://www.sciencebuddies.org/mentorin ... l?from=TSW
2.https://www.sciencebuddies.org/mentorin ... l?from=TSW

Sorry, but that is all I could find. I hope you find something that you are interested in.

Unfortunatley, my teacher still says I cannot test on humans, so my partner and I are still looking for a new project. Thanks for your reply.

Hi there,

Doing any project with human subjects can be a big pain. There's numerous forms you have to fill out, informed consent forms you have to get every subject to sign, etc. I understand why your teacher is reluctant to let you conduct this experiment. However, if you want to try to convince your teacher that you understand the work involved and that you're really interested in this topic, maybe he or she will let you go ahead. You'd have to have the forms filled out and a clear idea of your experimental plan.

Here's a website from Science Buddies about SRC approval and the types of forms that are necessary. It's just a starting point.
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/mentorin ... _src.shtml

If you decide to abandon this project, maybe you can work with a smaller organism that does not require SRC approval. There are plenty of invertebrate organisms that react to light and sound (fruit flies, for example). Could you design an experiment to test which stimulus is stronger? Or do you really want to focus on reaction times? This may be harder to test with an invertebrate.

I'm sorry I can't be more helpful. Are there any other aspects of this question that you're really interested in? Feel free to post more ideas; maybe we can find something more suited to your interests.

Best of luck,
Linh