Data

Analysis with Surveys

Grade Level: 3

Time:
Three 45 min class periods


By:
Keith Barton (Bedford County Public Schools)






In this lesson, the students will create and conduct a survey. They will then collect and analyze the data
to see if patterns arise in the responses of two or more comparison groups. There were two main lesson
objectives: the students create and conduct a survey; and they organize data and use it to answer their
investigation question. This lesson is described as a open inquiry: the students will decide what the
question under investigation will be, the students will decide on a method to collect the relevant data,
the students will analyze the data, and the students will use their data as evidence to answer the question
under investigation.

This lesson was developed through the Introduction to Inquiry: A Professional Development Model to Reform Teacher
Practices project directed by Science by Inquiry at Sweet Briar College and funded by the Virginia Department of Education
Math Science Partnership Grant (MSP) 2012-2013.

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Context

In my classroom, this lesson comes at the end of our social studies unit on the ancient civilizations of
Greece and Rome. The last part of that unit was on human characteristics, or jobs, and the different roles
that were played by men and women. Throughout the year, we have spent a great deal of time
comparing and contrasting different people, places, and things. While we have also already covered
graphing, our third grade unit is using these two weeks to review turning tally marks into charts & graphs.

This is an open inquiry lesson because the students must come up with their own question for
investigation (though they will be provided a framework), their own method for investigating that
question, and they must answer their question based on the data they collect. Though the students will
never actually be told to do so, the lesson plan guides them towards creating a survey.

One of the focuses of this plan was math, and the big ideas were surveys and analyzing data. While the
SOLs do require the students to conduct surveys, its not a part of the SOL that is tested. Because the
tests are assessing more and more skills by application, we wanted our students to create a survey of
their own. They had to find a way to conduct that survey and then look at the data to see what patterns
emerged. All of these ideas are a part of the math SOL 3.17.






After having done two inquiry lessons prior to this one, the other third grade teachers on my team were
beginning to take notice of the changes in my students. They wanted to collaborate on the planning
process of this lesson so they could see what inquiry was about. We also decided to collaborate to
include as many review skills as possible. Though this plan only includes the math and science portions,
we also had reading, social studies, and spelling components that resulted from our team planning.












~ Keith Barton

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Objectives

Know

o Surveys are an effective and valid way of gathering data.
o Data can be represented in several different forms.
o When writing, you must consider your audience.

Understand

Questioning Skills
o Data analysis and representation
o

Do

o
o
o
o

Create and conduct a survey

Collect and analyze data
Represent data in a graph or table format
Communicate investigation question and data

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Standards

Virginia Standards

Math 3.17 The student will
a) collect and organize data, using observations, measurements, surveys, or experiments;
b) construct a line plot, a picture graph, or a bar graph to represent the data; and
c) read and interpret the data represented in line plots, bar graphs, and picture graphs and write a
sentence analyzing the data.

Science 3.1 The student will plan and conduct investigations in which
a) predictions and observations are made;
b) objects with similar characteristics are classified into at least two sets and two subsets;
c) questions are developed to formulate hypotheses;
g) data are gathered, charted, and graphed (line plot, picture graph, and bar graph);
j) inferences are made and conclusions are drawn.

English 3.1 The student will use effective communication skills in group activities.
a) Listen attentively by making eye contact, facing the speaker, asking questions, and summarizing what
is said.
b) Ask and respond to questions from teachers and other group members.
c) Explain what has been learned.

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Preparation


What You Need

For the class (or teacher):

Document Camera or SmartBoard with blank handouts (below)
Blank copy of Double Bubble Thinking Map
Blank copy of teacher-created survey (Appendix B)


For each group:

Materials for students to create a survey (paper, pencils, computer)
Materials for students to record survey results (journals, computer)


For each student:

Double Bubble thinking map
Teacher-created survey (Appendix B)
Question Framework (Appendix C)
Investigation Write-up (Appendix D)

Data Analysis with Surveys

A Double Bubble
thinking map
(Hyerle, 2007) is a
way to compare and
contrast two ideas.
Its similar to a Venn
Diagram.

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Getting Ready

Before the day of the activity

1. Have students complete the pre-assessment (Appendix A) at least two days prior to the lesson.
The pre-assessment will determine how well students can create a chart from data, read and
interpret and chart, and analyze information. You may use this information to group students
and/or to know the kinds of support your students will need as they are investigating.
2. Modify the Double-Bubble Thinking Map as needed to suit your purposes. Our example prompts
students to explore the ideas about Ancient Greek and Roman civilizations, as described in this
lesson plan. However, you can adapt that idea to follow any content that suits the placement of
this lesson into your curriculum.
3. Review the Teachers Survey (Appendix B) and modify as needed.
4. Make copies of the Double-Bubble Thinking Map, the Teachers Survey, and the Question
Framework as these documents will be needed on the first day of the lesson.
5. Decide if you will use a document camera or other classroom technology (Smart Board), and
whether your students will have access to computers for typing up their surveys or charting their
collected data. You may want to collaborate with your resource teachers. Once you have made
those decisions, reserve any necessary space and equipment.

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Day One: Planning the Investigation

Engagement

1.

2.

Project a Double Bubble thinking map and hand one to each student. Ask them, If we complete
a Double Bubble, what is it that we are trying to do? When the students remember that a
Double Bubble is used to compare and contrast, point out which bubbles show similarities and
which ones show differences.

Remind students that they have spent a lot of time this year comparing and contrasting different
people, places, and things. Remind them about the comparisons they have already done with
different continents, different countries, different books, and books to their movies. Quickly
complete a Double Bubble to compare/contrast Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome.

We completed a Double Bubble thinking map for several different reasons. One, it let me see how
much information the students remembered about the Ancient Greece/Rome units we had finished. Two,
it set the stage for the whole idea of looking for differences, which was the point of the survey they
would eventually have to write. Three, it provided an in-road to showing the students that all of our
comparisons up to this point have been about attributes; we had not yet explicitly compared peoples
opinions.
~Keith Barton

3.

Say to the class, In all of the comparisons that weve completed this year, weve only dealt with
physical attributes, but sometimes it can be fun to go deeper and try to get at peoples opinions
and what they are thinking. Looking at the Double Bubble, what kinds of things do you think
were important to these people? If possible guide the students towards mentioning
architecture, government, and/or farming. Ask the class for ideas on ways they could find out
more about what the Greeks and Romans really thoughtif these people were still alive today. If
they are stuck, guide them towards the response, Ask them questions. As an example, mention
or write down the following questions about architecture on the board:
Which is the most useful architectural element?
Why?
Which architectural element is your favorite?
Why?

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4.

Make sure the students see that these types of questions are focusing on peoples opinions and
not really facts. Prompt the class: Do you remember how men and women had different roles in
these ancient civilizations? If we could travel back in time, I think it would be interesting to ask a
bunch of women these questions, then ask a bunch of men these same questions, and see if they
think differently. For example if women care about how a building looks, they might prefer
columns, but if men care more about how tall the buildings are, they might prefer arches.

Setting up the Investigation

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

Remind the students of previous investigations in which they had to conduct different trials to
make sure that the test was fair. Ask the class what we would do with a group of questions to
make sure we get as much information as possible. Guide the students toward mentioning that
this one survey will need to be given multiple times.

Take a moment with the class to list on the board people groups that you believe may think
differently. For example: men/women, adults/children, UVA fans/VA Tech fans, etc. Next, list
things that these groups might have differing opinions on. For example: school, sports,
fashion/style, TV shows.

Take a moment to hand out the teacher created survey that you prepared in advance (see
Appendix B) and have the students answer the questions and return the survey. As you collect
the surveys, work through the following discussion questions:
Who were my comparison groups? How do you know?
How do you know what topic I was trying to learn more about?
Think about the actual questions. Is there any way that I could group those questions?
What did you think about the number of questions? Were there too many, too few,
and why do you think so?

Write the following question framework on the board: What is the relationship between ______
(people group 1) & ______ (people group 2) and their thoughts on ___________ (topic)? Work
with the students to fill in the missing parts of the framework that pertain to the Teachers
Survey. (What is the relationship between boys and girls and their thoughts on resource classes?)

Next, use a document camera to display a blank copy of the survey and go through a few of the
student survey responses. Place tally marks in the correct places on a data chart. While you

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dont need to go through all of the surveys, go through at least 10 and see if there is any
information that stands out. Discuss the findings with the class.


10. Finally tell the class that they are going to be working within their reading groups (or like-ability
groups as determined from the pre-assessment) to create a question and a way to answer that
question. To start out, however, each student will work on his/her own. Hand out a Question
Framework paper to each student (see Appendix C), and allow time to fill out the paper as
individuals. At the end of the period collect the papers.


Unlike most of the higher level questions we write during our literature circle time, these were simple
yes/no, which one, rank these types of questions. Because these types of questions are so easy to write
and answer, the class was all over it!
~Keith Barton

Before Day Two:

Check the Question Framework papers to assess the students thoughts on how many questions they
will need to ask. Also, make notes on the papers about the people groups the students have chosen.
Some students may have picked unrealistic groups, numbers of questions, or numbers of people to
take the survey.
This allowed me to see if they had a good idea of what people groups would be available to them. It
also gave me an idea of which students work would need to be reined in some people picked actual
people groups that were not reachable. Some wanted to compare Greeks to Romans or Europeans to
Africans. I think this was because those particular students were still thinking about history and not
about people in general. I found that the students took care of the redirection here. Each student shared
his/her completed question stem with their reading group, and groups decided on which stem to use to
make their survey.
~Keith Barton

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Day Two: The Investigation

Introduce the Investigation:

1.

2.

3.

Begin by returning the students papers from yesterday. Allow time for each student to read over
teachers comments and to share their ideas with the other members of their group.
Afterwards, allow time for each group to decide which question they will choose to investigate.
While the groups are working, the teacher should circulate to see if the students are keeping in
mind the notes that were written on their papers and to monitor progress on writing the survey.

4.

As an exit ticket for the day, each student should write his or her own hypothesis to the
investigation question, even if their opinions differ from others in the group.

Day two could not have gone more perfectly, and the part of the plan that I thought would cause the
most difficulty having each of the four groups decide on one question to answer- took no time at all. In
the time that I spent walking around the classroom, very few students needed guidance. In fact, the
surveys were written so quickly, that we even had enough time to go to the computer lab and type them.
This was not in the original plan, but because the technology teacher had been showing the students
how to use Microsoft Publisher to make things look more attractive, it was an opportunity I wasnt
going to pass up!
~Keith Barton

Over the next Two Days

Provide students with time to distribute the surveys, have people complete them, and return
the survey results to the students.

Provide time for the students to start looking at the answers, and to come up with a plan for
how they will organize, analyze, and show the results.

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Day Three

Data Analysis

Once all data is collected, allow groups time to organize, discuss, and prepare their data for
presenting to the class.

Individually, have students fill out the Investigation Write-up sheet (Appendix D) as they are
discussing with their group.

Have the student groups present their question, data, and an answer to their investigation
question to the class.
Collect the Investigation Write-Up sheets to assess students summatively.

For the most part, all the groups decided on a tally chart to show their data. The top reading group,
however, chose to write paragraphs to answer their question, and their data was referenced in the
paragraphs. I believe they got the idea from Scholastic News Magazine. We read an issue every week,
and in every week, there is an article called Debate It. In the article, a question is asked and students
interviews from opposing sides are printed in paragraph form.
~Keith Barton

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Assessment

Objectives
The overall learning objective of this lesson (The Big Idea) is for students to understand survey analysis
as a means of gathering evidence to answer a question of interest. The main objectives were to have
the students write, conduct, and analyze a survey. Students also have to determine how to show all of
their data in a way that it can be analyzed to answer the investigation question.

Pre-lesson Assessment

This pre-assessment will be used for the purpose of determining students readiness for the lesson. It
should be completed two days prior to starting the lesson. The assessment will get at the students
ability choose questions appropriate for a given audience, write questions, and analyze/represent data
in different forms.

The pre-assessment was designed to see if the students could
1 - create a tally chart from given data,
2 - choose an appropriate audience, question set, and topic for a survey; and
3 - interpret data from a given chart.

For grouping purposes, we felt that if we kept the students together by their reading groups, we would
find commonalities in their answers. That was the case. The higher reading groups had nearly perfect
answers on the pre-assessment, showing that they would need little help during the lesson. My lowest
reading group struggled to understand what was being asked until items were read aloud. Another
reason we grouped by reading group rather than pre-assessment results was because we also felt that
this would give the chance to address their work during our reading rotation times, a schedule the
students were already used to following. We also felt that the students might be more comfortable
sharing ideas because theyve worked within their reading groups for the last six weeks.
~Keith Barton

Assessment Plan
At the heart of the assessment plan is determining whether or not the students are able to: create and
conduct a survey and find a way to represent their findings. Progress will be assessed in several ways:

1. Pre-Assessment- A short pre-assessment will be given to determine what background
knowledge the students are bringing to the lesson. The questions are designed to determine
how well the students can create a chart from data, read and interpret a chart, and analyze
information.
2. Question Framework- Students individual Question Framework sheet from Day 1 will help
the teacher to know which students may need more assistance in creating a practical survey.
3. Chart & Conclusion- The teacher will grade the accuracy of the students tally charts or other
method chosen for displaying their findings.
4. Investigation Write-Up- The final assessment piece will be the students individual ability to
write out the plan they had for their investigation. A sheet has been provided in Appendix D.

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Formative Assessments:
The Question Framework turned in at the end of Day 1 is used to assess students formatively. Teacher
needs to make comments on these sheets and return them to the students at the beginning of Day 2.
Consider whether the groups are realistic, whether the number of surveys needed will be practical, and
if the proposed questions will address the question for investigation.

Summative Assessments:

The surveys themselves can be used to assess how students, as a group, are able to write good survey
questions.

The group presentation on their data analysis is used to assess how students are able to creatively, and
accurately present data. The groups response to the investigation question will show how students
make the connections between their data and the answer to the investigation question.

Consider using the individually written Investigation Write-Up to grade students individually and/or to
formatively assess students writing abilities.

Then there was the survey itself. The surveys did not have to be of any predetermined length, and when
some of the students asked how long they had to be, I simply said, Thats up to you, but it sure would
be nice if each person in the group came up with at least one question. All of the groups had surveys of
at least 5 questions. Reading the questions helped determine if the students were able to stay on topic.
Though it was not in the plan, these questions were kept, put on a master list, and the students had to
group the questions by topic to recreate the survey.
~Keith Barton


The final pieces of assessment were the groups charts and the individual students investigation writeup. The former showed how well the students could actually interpret their data, and the latter showed if
the students could identify elements of the scientific method within this activity.
~Keith Barton

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Acknowledgements

Hyerle, David. Thinking Maps: A Language of Learning. Cary, NC: Thinking Maps Inc. 2007.

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Appendices: Handouts

1. Appendix A: Pre-Assessment

2. Appendix B: Teachers Survey

3. Appendix C: Question Framework

4. Appendix D: Investigation Write-Up

5. Appendix E: Double Bubble Thinking Map from Hyerle, 2007.

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Appendix A
Name______________________
Pre-Assessment

DIRECTIONS: In the space below, create a tally chart that shows the data given in the paragraph
below.


Mr. Barton wanted to know which candy was the most popular in his class of 21 students,
so he asked them. Six students said that they liked Warheads, and three said that they liked
Airheads. Reeses Pieces were the favorite of eight students. The rest of the class said that they
didnt like candy at all.

















1. If you wanted to find out a persons favorite color, which is the best question to ask?
A. What color are most of your clothes?
B. What color are your eyes?
C. What color shirt are most people wearing today?
D. What color shirt do people wear on Spirit Day?


2. What question could you ask the students in this class to figure out the most popular website
we use for math?

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. There are 110 3rd graders in our school. If you wanted to know the most popular cafeteria item
for 3rd graders, how many students do you think would have to ask before you got a good
answer?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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DIRECTIONS: Use the chart below to answer the following questions.

??
???

Valentines Day
**

Easter
****

Halloween
*******
Thanksgiving
*

Christmas
**********


*= 2 children


4. What question was probably asked to get this data?

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________


5. How many people were asked that question? _______________________________


6. In place of the ??, what header should be written? _________________________


7. In place of the ???, what header should be written? ________________________


8. Thanksgiving seems to have the fewest votes. Why do you think that is?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

9. These results were taken from a question asked to kids. If the question had been asked to
adults, how do you think the results would be different? Why?

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Appendix B
Name______________________
Teachers Survey

DIRECTIONS: Answer the questions below.


1. Circle the word that best describes you. Girl Boy

The five main resource classes at this school are:

1-music, 2-art, 3-library, 4-technology, and 5-P.E.

2. Which resource is the hardest for you? ____________________________________

3. Which resource is the easiest for you? _____________________________________

4. Rank the resource teachers from meanest to nicest:

__________________________________ (meanest)

__________________________________

__________________________________

__________________________________

__________________________________ (nicest)

5. Who is your favorite resource teacher? ____________________________________

6. If you could pick one resources class to have three times per week, which one would it be?

_______________________________


7. In which resource do you learn the most interesting information? _______________

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Appendix C
Name________________________
Question Framework

DIRECTIONS: Fill in the blanks below to create a question youd like to investigate.

What is the relationship between __________________& __________________ and their

thoughts on _______________________
____________________________________________________________?


1. How many other questions do you think youll need to ask to answer your investigation question?

______________

2. How many different people do you think you will need to get to answer your questions?

______________

3. If you had to make a hypothesis, what do you think the answer to your investigation question will be?

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Appendix D
Name________________________
Investigation Write-Up

DIRECTIONS: Complete each section of this sheet so that another student might repeat your
investigation.



1. Write your investigation question.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________


2. What materials did you use to complete this investigation? You do not have to use all the lines.

____________________ ____________________ ____________________

____________________ ____________________ ____________________

____________________ ____________________ ____________________

3. What were the steps you took to conduct your investigation? You do not have to use all the lines.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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4. How did you organize your data?

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________


5. Now that your investigation is complete, use the data to write an answer to your investigation question.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Appendix E

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