Surveys are an important tool for Social Subjects. A survey can help show how people feel about particular issues. However, a survey does not show how much people know about an issue. If you are using a survey as evidence, try to back it up with additional information.
Investigation
Do we have a problem with chewing gum in our school?
Pupils will work in teams to investigate the problem of old chewing gum and try to identify some solutions. We will conduct two surveys to help with evidence.
Survey 1: opinion
Survey 2: evidence
Outline
- Think about your best “chewing gum” story and share it with the rest of the class.
- The class will split in two: one group will investigate chewing gum information and the other will investigate the chewing gum evidence and then swap over.
Evidence
Information
- How can chewing gum be cleaned up? From the streets/from clothes/from walls and desks
- Why is chewing gum banned in Singapore?
- What is Chicza gum?
- What are gummy bins
Problem
- How much gum is stuck under the chairs and tables?
- How can we use this number to estimate the amount in the whole school?
-
If costs about 10p to clean up every bit of gum. How much will it cost to clean up the school?
Useful links
Councils urge chewing gum firms to aid street clean-up
Skills used in this investigation
- Teamwork
- Information literacy: using and evaluating sources; search skills: keywords, scanning, keyboard shortcuts; note taking.
- Numeracy
