1. College & Career Awareness
Big Data Collection
College & Career Awareness

2. Data Collection Data collection is a big industry:
All kinds of people and businesses use surveys and polls to collect information to improve their services.

3. Data Collection
Marketers collect information all of the time to see what their customers preferences are and to see if customers like the products they have purchased.

4. Data Collection
A city may collect data from citizens to see what their opinions are on proposed projects such as building a new rec center.

5. Data Collection
Politicians conduct polls to see if their constituents are happy with their work.

6. Data Collection
School yearbook staffs conduct surveys to see what students are interested in on a number of different topics.

7. Data Collection
Collecting and organizing data is a vital part of many careers today.

8. Data Collection
In this activity, you will build a short data collection project of your own and write a survey that other students will respond to. When you are done, you will retrieve the results of your data and write a brief conclusion on what you learned about your data project.

9. Step 1: Pick a Topic
What do you want to find out about other students your age? Do you want to learn about what kinds of music they listen to, what they eat for breakfast, how they get to school?

10. Step 1: Pick a Topic
You will want to choose a topic that you can ask more than one question about. For example, if you want to learn more about music interests, you could ask about their favorite band or you could also ask what kind of music they like (and give them a few choices!)

11. Step 1: Pick a Topic
Make sure your survey has a purpose. Ask yourself these questions.
Why are you taking this survey?
What information do you want to learn from your survey?

12. Step 2: Brainstorm Question Ideas
What exactly do you want to know? Some questions may be open ended (such as “What is your favorite band?)
Other questions might be multiple choice (such as “What kind of music do you prefer? Country, Rock & Roll, Rap, Easy Listening, etc.)

13. Step 2: Brainstorm Question Ideas
A question might require a specific type of answer (such as a number). An example of this kind of question might be “How many hours do you spend each day listening to music?

14. Step 2: Brainstorm Question Ideas
It is also possible to ask longer, more open-ended questions, but for this assignment, you will not need to ask a question like this.

15. Step 3: Proofread
As you write your questions and design your survey, remember that it is important to be professional and check to make sure your spelling and grammar are accurate. A poorly worded or biased survey may cause your results to be unreliable.

16. Step 4: Design
Depending on the software or tool you use and depending on how long your survey is, you may need to find pictures, choose color schemes and determine the order of your questions.

17. Step 4: Design
If your survey is long, you may ask a question and send the survey taker to different questions depending on their answer. For example, you may ask your survey taker “Do you like country music?” If they answer yes, you may ask more detailed questions about country artists, but if they say no, you may want to skip those questions.

18. Step 5: Create
A number of online tools exist that can be used to create surveys. Many cost money and offer advanced features such as customized professional looks and advanced reporting. A few, such as Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive are free, but have less features.

19. Step 6: Share your Survey
After you create your survey, you will typically get a link to the survey that you can share with others. You may post the link on a web page, it out, or write it down and share it with others that way.

20. Step 6: Share your Survey
Your teacher will tell you how they want you to invite others to take your survey.

21. Step 7: Review & Analyze your Data
Once several students have taken your survey, you can view the results in a few different ways.

22. Step 7: Review & Analyze your Data
Online surveys typically put your data into a spreadsheet that you can view online or download into spreadsheet software such as Excel.

23. Step 7: Review & Analyze your Data
Some survey tools, such as Google Forms allow you to see a “Summary of Responses” that typically displays some of your data in visual or graphic form. These are often a good way to quickly see the results of your data.

24. Step 7: Review & Analyze your Data
If your survey tool doesn’t offer graphs and reports, you can make your own in your spreadsheet software.
Your teacher will give you instructions on how you will review your data.

25. Step 7: Review & Analyze your Data
When you are done reviewing your data, finish the student worksheet and write a paragraph (3-5 sentences) explaining what you learned from the data you collected. Make sure you are using proper spelling, grammar and are writing in complete sentences.
Being able to effectively communicate in a written form is an important on the job skill to learn and have.