Implementing Project Based Survey Research Skills to Grade Six ELP Students with The Survey Toolkit and TinkerPlots®

Abstract

Survey Toolkit Collecting Information, Analyzing Data and Writing Reports (Walsh, 2009a) is discussed as a survey research curriculum used by the author's sixth grade students. The report describes the implementation of The Survey Toolkit curriculum and TinkerPlots® software to provide instruction to students learning a project based research methodology using surveys for the last six years. The article presents classroom instructional strategies to more effectively deliver the curriculum, along with examples of student work. Research supporting the teaching of statistics across the curriculum, implementation considerations, and an introduction of the development and organization of The Survey Toolkit is provided. Use of the curriculum with students focusing on findings from their selected sample, cognizant of inferential research methods (e.g., hypothesis testing) and not being able to generalize findings to a population is discussed. A piloted formal assessment and rubric evaluation of completed survey projects provides evidence of the learning skills and competencies students acquire using the curriculum model. The need for further research to evaluate the effectiveness of the curriculum materials, student learning, and staff development is discussed.

• Survey research methodology
• student project samples
• data and statistics teaching curriculum
• effective teaching strategies
• student learning and evaluation
• staff development
• research recommendations