Posted by Ted Bergstrom on January 21, 1998 at 12:00:54:
In Reply to: prize money posted by Brian Kench on January 20, 1998 at 15:56:42:
When I ran a voluntary prize fund at Michigan with a class of about 60 students, I simply handled the funds myself. I asked students to either write me a check or give me cash and I wrote them checks at the end of term.
(Handed out the checks at a class party on the last day.) I thought of running this through a dept account, but the dept administrators convinced me that this would be a greater hassle than it would be worth. Since I have moved to UCSB, I continue to do the same thing, with a class of about 80 students.
I didn't have the students sign any contract and I have so far not had any difficulties with any student about this matter.
Classroom experiments don't seem to fall into the bailiwick of human subjects committee--at least at Michigan and UCSB.
One thing I have noticed is a substantial "price elasticity" in willingness to contribute to the fund. The first time I taught the course, I had a bit of a subsidy from the department and was able to pay an average return of $30 for every $20 invested. I had about 80 percent participation. Last term at UCSB, I offered only an average return of $22 for every $20 invested and got only about 25% participation in the prize fund. On another occasion when I offered an average return of $25 on a $20 investment, I got about 50 percent participation. In the long run, what I would really like to do is have the University charge a lab fee and then use the revenue for prizes.