The Ministry of Education has moved to address problems faced by regional ethics committees swamped by research applications from school pupils undertaking science fair projects.
The ministry has asked the New Zealand Association of Science Educators to develop guidelines involving ethical requirements for science fair research.
Dr Rosemary De Luca, a senior lecturer at the Waikato University School of Education, is working with colleagues to develop the proposed guidelines, after an approach from the association. She has also consulted University of Otago sociologist Dr Martin Tolich.
In a paper recently published in the Australian-based Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, Dr Tolich highlighted issues involving science fair projects with research topics involving human participants.
He also outlined proposed guidelines and processes.
Dr Tolich, a senior lecturer in sociology, said that with the onset of the science fair season, thousands of children around New Zealand - many in school years 7 to 9 - were entering a plethora of unique projects in regional science contests.
When it when it came to children's projects requiring human participants, this wide variety of topics and the current state of NZ guidelines could lead to unethical practices, he warned.
"The ambiguous application form and guidelines for these projects imply that risky practices such as medicating fellow students are acceptable."
In 2006, the country's six regional Health and Disability Ethics Committees had been inundated with applications for science projects, leading the committee heads to refuse to accept future applications.
"It was very time-consuming as each project application was unique and many were less than clear about what exactly the project involved," he said.
Since 2006 interim measures have been taken to counter the problems, but the ministry approach aims to provide a long-term solution.
Dr Tolich advocates streamlining existing research guidelines and establishing five or six pre-approved human participant topics each year.
This would allow a local ethics committee made up of members of a school's community to consider only projects in which the potential risks were low and easily foreseeable, he said.
He was pleased positive action was being taken and that his call for improved guidelines had been heeded, he said in an interview.
However, for this new approach to work, the wider issue of an ingrained and unrealistic cult of originality in science fairs also needed to be tackled, he said.
It was also important for pupils to develop methodological skills, and the notion of "tremendous benefit" in unique projects should be challenged.
Even university masters students were not usually expected to undertake original research, he noted.
