Finalizing Your Survey

CORE ACTIVITY: Finalizing your survey (50 minutes)

Materials: First draft of survey. Peer-to-peer feedback worksheet (optional). Survey administration plan.

• Pre-test (5 minutes)
  • Distribute the first draft of your survey and ask each student to practice taking the survey. Time how long it takes students to complete the survey. Alternatively: students can find peers not in the YPAR group to pre-test their survey. This could take place during or outside of class. They can use the peer-to-peer feedback worksheet to collect feedback.
• Revise (15 minutes)
  • When finished, ask students to put thumbs up or thumbs down for the following questions. Ask students to further explain their responses and make recommendations.
    • This survey was easy to take
    • This survey was biased
    • The questions were clear
    • The survey was too long (ideally the survey should take 5-8 minutes to complete)
    • The survey asked too many personal questions
    • The survey had grammar or spelling mistakes
• Group discussion (10 minutes)
  • Based on the information we now have, what questions do we need to change? Are there questions we need to add? Anything to get rid of?
  • Based on revisions, create a final version of your survey. If there were substantial revisions, you may need to do another pre-test.
• Survey Introduction (10 minutes)
  • Explain that the survey should have a brief introduction explaining who is doing it, what they are studying, and explaining that participation is anonymous and voluntary.
  • Ask students to count off by 2.
  • Have #1s turn to the person next to them and practice introducing their survey - what would they say if they were asking a stranger to take this survey? (5 minutes)
  • Then ask #2 to report the introduction back to the class. Compile a list of ideas on the board. Group these together into a coherent introduction (5 minutes).
• Planning for survey administration (10 minutes)
  • Discuss the following as a group:
    • Who is our target audience for our survey? (students, community members)
    • How will we administer our survey?
      • For an online survey: how will students spread the link? What social media or other platforms will they use?
      • For a paper survey: will this happen after school, during class time, lunchtime, etc...?
    • Set a time by which survey data MUST be collected
  • Explain that students will be working in small groups to distribute the surveys and collect as much data as they can! Divide into small groups and distribute the "Survey Administration Plan" worksheet. Each group should fill out the worksheet. Circulate and answer questions.