Nicholas R. Perrone
In this stage, the student groups will create baseline surveys and will choose a focus group to complete the surveys. The surveys should follow the following guidelines: they should be no more than five questions long, each question should quantify the data in the same way (i.e. the use of a Likert Scale is preferred), and finally each student should be able to complete the survey in one sitting. Some surveys may include perceived data based on the student perspectives; other surveys may ask more quantifiable information such as: “In school, how many minutes a day do you go outside?” To clarify, a Likert scale is defined as, “a psychometric response scale often used in questionnaires, and is the most widely used scale in survey research…[In it] respondents specify their level of agreement to a statement.”
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Likert Survey Example:
Figure 4: Example of Likert survey questions (question 1 elicits a perceived response, while question 2 elicits a quantifiable response) -- many surveys have smiley faces instead of the words; the smiley faces range from a smile to a frown and help those students who have trouble reading
Direct observation may take place in the experimentation stage, as well. During direct observation, each student group must have a table ready-to-go to be able to record the data in a timely fashion. The student groups may consider creating tables for data collection that the focus groups can complete, as well. For instance, a class might be able to log how many steps they take during the school day -- especially if the teacher is keeping track of it with the class (please refer to
Figure 3
for an example of this table).
