The Scientific Review Committee
And
The Science Fair Project
What Types of Projects
Are Verboten!

 Human, vertebrate animal, or PHBA studies that did not
have preapproval
 Prohibited Vertebrate Animal Studies

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Studies done at home/school/field that should have been
done at a regulated research institution
Studies that caused more than momentary pain or suffering
or that were designed to kill
Induced toxicity studies
Predator/vertebrate prey experiments
Studies where student performed euthanasia on a
vertebrate animal
Studies with an animal death in any group or subgroup due
to the experimental procedures
What Types of Projects
Are Verboten!

 Prohibited Studies using Potentially Hazardous Biological
Agents (PHBA's)
 Microorganisms were cultured at home
 BSL-2 studies (including opening plates or containers of
unknown microorganisms) done in a BSL-1 lab
 Studies using human and other primate established cell
lines without SRC pre-review and approval
 Prohibited Human Participant Studies
 Studies where the IRB required written documentation of
consents which were not obtained
 Studies where the student used surveys/questionnaires
without IRB pre-review and approval
What Forms Are, Or
Maybe, Needed?

 1B – Approval Form
 1C - Regulated Research Institutional or Industrial
Setting Form
 2 - Qualified Scientist Form
 3 - Risk Assessment Form
 4 - Human Participants Form
 Human Informed Consent Form

 5A -Vertebrate Animal Form
 5B - Vertebrate Animal Form
 6A - Potentially Hazardous Biological Agents Risk
Assessment Form
 6B - Human and Vertebrate Animal Tissue Form
Case Study 1:
Blood Sugar Levels

 Sheldon develops his science fair project around his
interest in studying the effect of high sugar foods on
blood sugar levels.
 His hypothesis: Consumption of sports drinks will
result in a rapid increase of blood sugar levels
because of the high sugar content in these products.
 Sheldon has obtained written consent from his
grandmother and her physician to be the test subject
in the experiment. He has attached this paperwork
to his project documentation.

 Sheldon has completed the following forms:
Form 2: Qualified Scientist (MeeMaw’s Dr.)
Form 3: Risk Assessment
Form 4: Consent
 He has also specified that the lancelets used to
record the blood sugar levels will be disposed of by
first placing them into a pressure cooker for an hour
and them taken to MeeMaw’s doctor’s office for final
disposal.
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 Sheldon has specified in great detail the procedures
he will use to perform his experiment
• He will have MeeMaw take her blood sugar level at
0800, 1700, and 2200
• He will then have her drink 500 mL of Gatorade and
then take her blood sugar levels at 5 minutes, 10
minutes, and 15 minutes after she drinks the liquid.
 The results will be recorded, tabulated, and
presented to evaluate whether or not sports drinks
immediately increase blood sugar levels.
 Good, Bad, or Ugly?
Case Study 2:
Temperature & Respiration

 Leonard, being asthmatic, is interested in examining
whether or not temperature has an effect on respiration.
 He talks with his local veterinarian and enlists her help
because he wants to use Carassius auratus auratus
(common goldfish) in the study.
 All of the experimentation was conducted at the vet’s lab
under her observation and supervision.
 Before starting the experiment, Leonard submitted forms
1B, 2B, 3, 5A, and 5B to his school’s science fair sponsor.

 Leonard conducted his experiment by measuring
the water temperature and recording the number of
times which the goldfish’s gill flap (operculum)
moved.
 He decreased the water temperature by adding ice
to the tank, while to increase the temperature he
added hot water.
 The fish in the experiment did not die.
 Good, Bad, Ugly?
Case Study 3:
Voice tone and Canine Behavior

 Penny develops a project to study what effect the
tone used when giving a command to a dog has on
its behavior and response.
 She speaks with her local psychologist who agrees
to serve as the Qualified Scientist.
 Penny completes and submits forms 1B, 2, 3, 5A,
and 5B to her science fair sponsor before conducting
the experiment.

 Her procedure is as follows:
Penny conducted six (6) different trials
The difference in each test will be measured again
baseline which is normal voice and no body language.
 Subsequent tests will be changing the voice level
across all commands or adding body language or both
to see if the trained dog reacts different from the base.
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 No dogs were harmed during the experiment.
 Good, Bad, or Ugly?
The Reason the SRC
Exists

 Sheldon: Do you want to hear an interesting thing about
stairs?
 Leonard: Not really!
 Sheldon: If the height of a step is off by as little as two
millimeters, most people will trip.
 Leonard: I don't care. 2 millime--? That doesn't seem
right.
 Sheldon: It's true. I did a series of experiments when I
was 12. My father broke his clavicle.
 Leonard: Is that why they sent you to boarding school?
 Sheldon: No. That was the result of my work with lasers.