Does your work require IRB approvals? If Yes, articulate your detailed IRB strategy. If No, explain why you don’t need IRB approval and identify situations when you might need IRB approval.
We do not need IRB approval. Our project in Sierra Leone is currently only focused on being able to produce mushrooms and then increasing the scaling of our operation afterwards. With this, our only human interactions would be with our workers or when asking for supplies. Our planned research papers for the near future involve a summary of possible ways we will try to scale our operation, as well as a detailed report of how we can produce second-generation grain spawn. None of what we are doing involves collecting and recording information from people and therefore would not qualify for IRB approval. However, some instances that we possibly could need IRB approval are if we are observing how individual families in Sierra Leone incorporate mushrooms into their diets. Also, we would need IRB approval if we are collecting records from hospitals several years after the mushroom production systems were successful to see whether or not the number of malnourished people decreased.
Develop an outline for your mid-semester presentations. What supporting evidence will you provide for each point? How will you boost your credibility every step of the way?
Explain the problem from a macro perspective
We are fighting malnutrition in Sierra Leone by producing mushrooms
Explain the problem from a micro perspective
Child hospitalization and mortality due to malnutrition is extremely high in Sierra Leone as well as the percentage of youth with stunted growth
Explain the approach and how the solution should work
The large scale allows mushrooms to be sold for cheaper prices
Mushrooms are a source of nutrition that can be easily accessible from a physical as well as monetary standpoint
Mushrooms can be integrated into everyday meals
Project’s effect on larger/external systems
We rely on the local Makeni market to sell our mushrooms
We hope to reach the global market as well when we can scale enough
Discuss the results of our research
We can reliably produce mushrooms in Sierra Leone with our current procedure
Identify the challenges and plans to address them
Scaling — large substrate buckets, underground grow holes, shelves of substrate
Sustainability — many larger scaling solution can eliminate the non-reusable plastic grow bags
How will you increase your credibility every step of the way?
By specifically naming companies that we worked with and validating our production process to the audience.
We are working with World Hope International and Jawara to make mushroom production possible in Sierra Leone.
Listing feasible numbers of produced mushrooms throughout the venture and other numbers associated with the production system.
We aim to have a specific amount of mushrooms produced per week by the end of this semester. We will also list the number of grow bags, the amount of substrate and the amount of mycelium we used.
By running everyone through our productions process
By defining every term that a regular person would not understand
Words like mycelium and inoculation.
By differentiating what makes our process better than what others are doing to produce mushrooms.
We would present the advantages of our systems as opposed to other systems trying to grow mushrooms.
By having clear visuals and specific graphs that people can read
We would indicate how our production system works by having pictures taken by us.
One thought on “GSIF Blogpost #6”
Your overall outline looks good. For the final presentation I would add specific compelling statistics to your slides on the problem. Also add some more detail to the “results of our research” section – what quantity of mushrooms can you produce? How much would a farmer produce, and how often, and how much would those mushrooms sell for? Anywhere you can add details that support/prove what you are saying and still remain within your time limit I would.
Your overall outline looks good. For the final presentation I would add specific compelling statistics to your slides on the problem. Also add some more detail to the “results of our research” section – what quantity of mushrooms can you produce? How much would a farmer produce, and how often, and how much would those mushrooms sell for? Anywhere you can add details that support/prove what you are saying and still remain within your time limit I would.