September 11, 2011

Surveys

Out of Class






One of my CAS projects is the recycle project. This year, my aim is to improve the recycling system in the high school because I know that there are flaws in it. In order to do this, I decided to conduct a survey that will be answered by high school students and the high school faculty. 


Although a survey may be the fastest way to find out people's opinions, there are some problems with surveys. For example, people might lie, answer wrongly without knowing, misunderstand the questions, or the answers on the survey are limited and do not apply and represent what people think. In addition, some people may not even bother to answer the survey, which could possibly affect the accuracy of the results.


I know that I have to be very careful in producing my survey so that the questions are not ambiguous and that there are enough options so that the people have freedom to answer that they really think. Unfortunately, I know that my data will still not be absolutely accurate. 


This relates to some knowledge issues: How do we know the answers are true when people could possibly make mistakes or have other intentions? (I'm trying to apply this to the real world) How do we know whether people truly understand what they are asked? How much can we trust data? 




Source of image: http://www.emmagem.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/survey.jpg

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