Class questionnaires Subject areas ICT Geography social studies Mathematics Age:12-18 Duration: 2 weeks to 2 months Summary This project idea can be adapted for use by many different classes. Partner schools agree on a topic and the specific areas they are going to research. They conduct a survey using an agreed set of questions in their respective classes, schools or communities. They then share the results. In this way teachers in Japan and Britain can ensure their classes get the most out of a project. For example, an English class in Japan and a geography or maths class in the UK can take part in a project on the same topic. 1) Designing the survey Topics for the survey could include routines, experiences, hopes and opinions of students. 2) Gathering the data Data can be gathered either orally or in written form. More ambitious projects may involve mailing or e-mailing questionnaires to other people or organisations in your own country. Whole-school surveys are a useful way to involve students who are not part of the club or class directly involved in the link. Classroom-based surveys can be used for spoken language practice, using one of two main models: Model A: Each student takes charge of a particular question. (The question may have been written by himself or herself or the student at their partner school with whom they have a personal link). They ask this question to all the other students in the class, and note down the answers. Model B: Each question is written on a sheet with a space for the answers. Every student is given a question. They ask the question to another student and then exchange questions with that student. Turning to a new student, they ask their new question, which they then exchange, etc. This can be done either while walking freely around the classroom or seated, with students answering/receiving questions from the person on one side of their seat and asking/giving questions to the person on the other side. 3) Predicting the answers Students attempt to guess their partners answers - either before the questions are sent, or, if the answers are received via the teachers, before the answers are revealed. This can be done either as a written assignment, a classroom group activity or a game. Games can follow a number of formats, from a multiple-choice quiz, coupled with gambling, or a quiz where students form teams and attempt to guess the most popular answers to questions, with a point awarded for everyone who gave a particular answer (along the lines of the old UK TV show - Family Fortunes - see http://www.nasu-net.or.jp/~ededgar/monkeys/family.htm ). 4) Analysing the results The analysis of survey results can cover various areas of the curriculum. Mathematics Compile the survey results into graphs and charts to share with your partner school. If your work is in electronic form, you can put it on your section of the e-link website. Results given with names supplied (real or assumed) can be collated for use in conjunction with database-related activities. For example, a "Guess Who" activity where someone picks one student from the partner school and students have to ask questions to try to narrow down who they are, correlating the answers with information held in a table or database. If they haven't previously seen photos of their partners, they could also attempt to guess the identity of a student in their partner school by relating appearance in a photo to information from the survey. Geography How is your partner school different from your own school? How are they similar? Are differences in the results only due to the schools being in different countries? What other factors may have affected the results?  How did the age of the participants, language issues. location of the school and the way the questions were asked affect the outcome? 5) Sharing the results Make a website showing the results from both the British and Japanese schools. Depending on which areas of the curriculum you want to cover, you may want to divide this task between British and Japanese schools. For example, Japanese students might make graphs and charts of the results, while British students write a report to try to analyse their meaning. Online resources A school's survey on their likes and dislikes This site, produced by the Holy Family National School in Ireland, contains some good ideas for presenting the results of a school survey. The Database Buddies project A detailed description for teachers of a project in which students try to discover the indentity of a 'mystery buddy' in their partner school.  Students upload and develop survey questions and enter information into a shared database.  UK Department for Education and Employment: schemes of work Description of a collaborative survey project aimed at year 9 secondary school ICT teachers.   Click here to return to the projects contents page