The Survey Toolkit – Journal paper

Journal paper

Teacher/researcher Thomas Walsh developed this statistics resource. The toolkit is designed for year 7 and 8 students learning in a project-based, cross-curricular setting.

New Zealand intermediate and junior secondary teachers may find this learning initiative works best when collaborating with colleagues in other departments.

Walsh advocates using surveys to improve written work and student motivation to discover answers to their own questions.

A research paper arising from the project is:  Implementing Project-Based Survey Research Skills to Grade Six ELP Students with The Survey Toolkit and Tinkerplots is an excellent place to start if you are interested in cross-curricular learning using statistical methods as a basis for exploration.

The teacher resource manual is also valuable for teachers needing help with statistical concepts and terminology.

Tinkerplots software is available here.  A free alternative is CODAP software.