NASA 2012 Summer of Innovation Program

Appendix 10: Study Overview and Consent Form for Parents

S tudy Overview and Consent Form for Parents of the National Evaluation of NASA’s Summer of Innovation

NASA will be studying its Summer of Innovation (SoI) project this summer to learn more about how the project is implemented and to understand the outcomes for students who participate in SoI. To help make the study successful, NASA is asking over 2,000 students who will be in 6^th to 9^th grade next year and their parents to participate.

There are three parts of the study that involve collecting data from you and your child:

1. As part of the registration process, NASA is asking you to complete a short survey that asks about your interest in SoI, your child’s background characteristics, and contact information for you and your child.

2. NASA will be asking 6^th to 9^th grade students in the selected camps to complete a survey on the first day of camp. The survey will ask students about their interest in science and science activities.

3. NASA will ask students to complete another survey in October that asks about their interest in science and science activities. The study team will send this survey to your child in the mail.

What it Means to be Included in this Study

By registering your child for SoI you are agreeing that both you and your child can be included in the study. Inclusion in this study means that your registration contact information will be made available to the study team and that you and your child will be contacted in the fall about the second student survey. If you do not agree to have yourself and your child included in the study, your child cannot register for SoI at this time. However, both your and your child’s participation in the surveys is voluntary. You and your child do not have to answer any question you or he/she does not want to. Your child can participate in program even if you or he/she does not take part in the surveys.

Protecting Your Information

Protecting your information is very important to us.

• NASA’s Office of Education, the companies doing the study, the awardees’ local evaluators and the program’s staff will follow strict rules to protect the information you and your child provide.

• The study reports will not include your or your child’s names.

• Paper copies of survey responses and electronic copies of the data will be stored securely.

• We will not share information that identifies you or your child to anyone outside the study team, the evaluators of the local programs, and the Summer of Innovation staff, except as required by law. A final dataset with survey responses will be prepared for NASA at the end of the study, but only after names and other identifiers are removed from the data.

As with all data collection, there is a very small chance that someone will see your survey answers without permission. NASA Office of Education, the Summer of Innovation staff, and the study team have many procedures in place to protect the privacy of the data collected, so we do not think this will happen. However, if it does, all NASA Office of Education procedures will be followed to correct the situation.

Please sign below to agree to have both yourself and your child included in the study:

Print child’s name:	___
	Child’s First Name	Child’s Last Name
Print Your Name:	___
	Parent/Guardian First Name	Parent/Guardian Last Name
Your signature:	____________		Date:

Questions about the Study

Please sign and return this form with your other registration materials.

[IRB STAMP]

For questions about the study, please email [email protected] or call Alina Martinez, Study Director, at 877-520-6840 (toll-free) or Patricia Moore Shaffer, NASA Office of Education Evaluation Manager, at 202-358-5230 (toll call). For questions about your child’s rights as a participant in this evaluation, please call Abt’s Institutional Review Board Administrator, Teresa Doksum at 877-520-6835 (toll-free).

NASA Office of Education Appendix 10 10-1