Work and play: Disease spread, social behaviour and data collection in schools Dr Jenny Gage, Dr Andrew Conlan, Dr Ken Eames

What: Determine levels of mixing within and between classes in primary schools. How: Use a questionnaire for primary school pupils to measure their mixing patterns. Note: This research has only been going on since 2007, and we dont yet know all the answers! Research project: the task

What: Determine levels of mixing within and between classes in primary schools. How: Use a questionnaire for primary school pupils to measure their mixing patterns. Note: This research has only been going on since 2007, and we dont yet know all the answers! Research project: the task

What: Determine levels of mixing within and between classes in primary schools. How: Use a questionnaire for primary school pupils to measure their mixing patterns. Note: This research has only been going on since 2007, and we dont yet know all the answers! Research project: the task

Ethics: A set of laws/guidelines to ensure: everyone is protected when doing research researchers show respect for their subjects. Data and ethics

Ethics: A set of laws/guidelines to ensure: everyone is protected when doing research researchers show respect for their subjects. Data and ethics Two important factors Consent: must have peoples permission. Anonymity: must protect personal information.

Data collection Use a questionnaire to measure networks in primary schools. Ask pupils which other pupils they spend time with.

Before the students sent the data into the research team, they coded and anonymised it: Names were replaced by codes which the students devised, so that the research team could still tell whether a particular child was a boy or a girl, and which class they were in. It is an ethical requirement of all research that data cannot be traced back to a particular individual. Processing the data

The questionnaire was designed in two parts: A child filled in the top part of the form (with help if necessary), giving the names of up to 6 people from their own class they spent most time with and up to 4 people from other classes. The students then used a code of their own devising to transfer this information to the bottom of the form, but without using anyones names. Only the bottom half of the form was returned to the research team, so that all the data was anonymised before they saw it. Processing the data