Environmental Survey

Reprinted from The Wild Times Teacher Connection v2n1, Fall 1996.

by the 8th Graders of Escola das Nações, Brasilia

The survey was created by the 8th Graders of EDN to assess the attitudes of their school community on different environmental issues. Once the data was collected, the students created graphs to represent the responses to each question. The graphs were then shared at their annual "Eco-Fair".

This project is a wonderful opportunity for teachers to integrate the disciplines of Social Studies, Science, and Mathematics, and should provide an opportunity for lively discussion in the classroom.

Materials

pencils, survey copies, calculators, computer(s) with spreadsheet program (optional), materials to construct graphs (compass, protractor, pencils, markers, paper)

Procedures

How will students collect the data? Students will probably feel more comfortable approaching older students and adults if they conduct interviews in teams. They can practice their interviewing skills on each other before venturing outside the classroom. Don't forget to coach students on approaching people and asking them to respond to a survey, and that it is OK for people to refuse to be interviewed.

What population will be interviewed? Can the whole student body and faculty of the school be interviewed? What about families, or the larger community? After these decisions are made, photocopy the appropriate number of surveys and distribute them to the students. Supply them with a clipboard and pencils and send them out to collect data.

Once the data is collected, it must formatted in a manner that can be analyzed. Tally the responses to each item on the survey. Now, compute the percentage of responses for each item within a category by dividing item responses by category responses. Also, tally the total number of respondents to the survey.

Working with this data is a perfect opportunity to utilize a spreadsheet. After students have computed enough of the percentages to understand what they are doing, the spreadsheet could be introduced.

To set up the spreadsheet enter the response choices for a category on one row. On the next row, enter the number of responses for each choice. Now the spreadsheet can be used to quickly create pie graphs and compute the percentages.

The advantage of using a spreadsheet to construct the graphs is in its accuracy. Because the angles for each segment are computed and drawn consistently by the computer, the graphs can easily be compared with each other.

Analysis

Do the responses vary based on the age of the person interviewed?
Do the responses vary based on the gender of the person interviewed?
Once the data is posted on the web site, students can determine if responses vary based on geography or urban vs. rural environments.

Publishing

The final statistics and graphs should be submitted to The Wild Ones upon completion of the survey. The results will be posted on our World Wide Web site along with an Internet version of the survey. Total results to the survey will be reported in upcoming issues of The Wild Times.

If a spreadsheet is used to construct the graphs, please submit data on disk or attach the file(s) to an e-mail.

In addition to sharing the data, have children (and teachers) write about their experiences in carrying out the project.

Submit your own curriculum plans or resource suggestions to The Wild Ones for publication.

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