I is for IRB

It turns out "IRB" can stand for a lot of things, none of which mean anything to me, but this one will probably have a lot of power over my life for the foreseeable future: IRB = Institutional Review Board. They're the group at a university that reviews all research proposals to be sure the researcher has adequate protections in place for the university, the research participants, and the researcher herself.

"Approved" stamp required before
continuing. From bigevil600 on
stock.xchng.

This semester I had to fill out an IRB proposal for the first time, for my research class. Since my research is solely for a class project and is under the direction of my prof, it is exempt from IRB review. There are a lot of reasons for this, but the big one is that no class research could ever get done if students had to wait for the IRB to review their proposals and conduct the project in the span of a single semester.

My research--about cycling with children-- is still in progress. Wanna join in? If you're a parent and you live in Texas, you are eligible to take the survey (it's geared more toward those who have children living at home, although parents of grown children are welcome to take it) here.