Considering governing body requirements and ethics
For universities, research activities must adopt with integrity
practices consistent with The National Code for Responsible Conduct of
Research (NHMRC 2018). The QUT ARG needed to evaluate the project and
partnership to determine whether this project complied with guidelines
and policy, and consider whether ethics approval would be required. It
was important to determine whether there were any other governing bodies
to consider when working directly with a school. The QUT ARG had no
previous experience undertaking a collaboration with the secondary
education sector. During the COVID-19 situation, the Queensland state
government Department of Education issued a directive that all research
activities in state schools and other educational sites were to be
postponed until further notice (Queensland Government 2020). Instead of
research, the project aim was to develop learning activities for them to
conduct and raise awareness of research processes. Careful consideration
throughout the development and implementation phases of the project was
taken to comply with government regulations including frequently
changing public health directives. This restricted the scope of this
initial project, however, it may be possible in future when the
Department of Education directive changes, and if ethics approval is
sought, to gather survey feedback from the students themselves on their
perception of the learning opportunities and material provided.