Design, administer, and analyze a generation gap survey

Updated: September 15, 2008
Lesson plan

Students get a real life lesson in sociology as they formulate a hypothesis about the attitudinal differences between generations, test their hypothesis with a survey, chart their findings, and present their answers to the class.

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Lesson plan informationLesson plan information
Teacher guideTeacher guide
Lesson procedureLesson procedure
Materials neededMaterials needed
Lesson extension activitiesLesson extension activities

Lesson plan information

Lesson plan
ItemRequirements

School level

Grades 9-12

Curriculum areas

Social studies

Language arts

Mathematics

Class time

Approximately 5-6 hours, spread over 4 weeks

Software required

Microsoft Office Excel

Microsoft Office PowerPoint

Microsoft Office Word

Materials needed

Example of a survey form (Web access)

Teacher guide

Goals

Students are introduced to the process of creating a hypothesis and testing its validity.

Students become familiar with spreadsheet fundamentals.

Students engage in thoughtful discussion about generational differences.

Objectives

Students formulate a hypothesis with dependent and independent variables about generational differences in attitude.

Students design, write, and administer a questionnaire that elicits responses to questions about generational differences.

Students analyze the survey results using Office Excel.

Students present their findings to the class using Office Excel or Office PowerPoint.

Lesson procedure

Introduction

Do you have the same attitudes about issues in life—such as politics, for example—as someone who is age 30? Age 50? Age 80?

Do older people and younger people think alike? On what subjects might they have different opinions?

Is there really such a thing as a "generation gap" Or is this a myth or assumption we make?

You are going to find out the answer to this question by researching the differences between generations. Working in teams, you will first develop a hypothesis that you believe reflects the differences between generations. Next, you will design, write, and administer a questionnaire to test your hypothesis. Your survey will compare attitudes and opinions about certain issues, based on different variables, such as age, gender, or geographic region. Finally, you will chart your findings, analyze your results using Office Excel, and report the results to your classmates using Office PowerPoint.

Main activity

Step 1: Creating a hypothesis

Software: None

What to do

Create a hypothesis using dependent and independent variables

1.

Decide how you think generations may differ in their opinions on a particular topic. Team up with a classmate and choose two topics to study. These will be called "dependent variables" because you are stating that you believe that a person's beliefs about these topics depend on their age. The "independent variable" is what causes the differences in the dependent variables. In this case, the independent variable is the generation to which the person belongs. Choices for topics might include:

Politics

TV violence

Movies

Religion

Technology

Women in the military

Gun control

Family values

Friendship

Eating habits

2.

Decide exactly how you think the dependent variables will differ for the generations. This is your hypothesis. For example, if the topic is TV violence, the hypothesis might be: "Younger people think TV violence is fun and harmless, but older people think it is dangerous and harmful." If the topic is Women in the military, the hypothesis might be: "The older a person is, the more he or she will believe that women in the military should not be allowed in combat." If the topic is Friendship," this might be your hypothesis: "Young people tend to value friends more than family, but older people tend to value family more than friends."

Step 2: Creating the survey

Software: Microsoft Office Word

What to do

Create a survey and test it

1.

Use Word to create a survey form similar to the one found in the Design a survey using Word article.

With your partner, create five statements for survey participants to respond to that will accurately test your hypothesis. Statements should be designed to elicit answers like "strongly agree" or "strongly disagree."

2.

Assign numerical values for different attitudes toward your statements. For example:

5 Strongly agree

4 Agree

3 Neutral

2 Disagree

1 Strongly disagree

3.

Present your survey statements to the rest of the class and see if:

The class can guess your hypothesis.

The statements accurately reflect the hypothesis.

Step 3: Administering the survey

Software: None

What to do

Administer the survey in a public place to a specified minimum number of respondents

1.

Decide on a minimum number of people to be surveyed.

2.

Decide at which public place you will administer the survey (for example, at a mall, inside or outside a grocery store, at a movie theater).

3.

Obtain the permission of your parents and the survey site owner before administering their survey.

4.

Set up tables in the public place you have chosen.

5.

Be sure respondents fill out the entire survey and thank them for taking the time to do so.

6.

For each respondent, average the numerical values of their responses to the survey statements and write this "score" on the survey form.

Step 4: Analyzing the Results

Software: Microsoft Office Excel

What to do

Analyze your survey data

1.

Open a new spreadsheet in Excel.

2.

Clarify your variables. For example, "Independent Variable: Generation"; "Dependent Variable: Political Beliefs." There should be one column for each dependent variable on your worksheet. When entering data into your worksheet, each response (completed survey) should be put in its own row, and the independent variable should go in the first column.

3.

Note how many males/females there are, and what part of the world the respondents were born in. Even if you do not include this information in your analysis, it is important to record it, because these differences may affect your results. Make these the second and third columns.

4.

Sort the data based on the generation group. Then, calculate the average score for each dependent variable for each group. Using Excel's filtering features, evaluate the data by showing records that match certain rules, or criteria. For example, show all records of people who were born between 1946 and 1955 from the United States that scored the highest for one of your dependent variables.

5.

Create charts that show some trend in your data.

Step 5: Presenting the results

Software: Microsoft Office Excel, Microsoft Office PowerPoint

What to do

Create an Excel or PowerPoint presentation to show your team's hypothesis, survey, and results

Create a presentation to show your team's hypothesis, survey, and results to the class. Your team can:

Present your ideas on the computer using Excel to show your graphs.

—or—

Create a presentation in PowerPoint to demonstrate your hypothesis and findings with graphics, art, animations, and graphs.

Conclusion

Assess the students on:

Formulation of their hypothesis

Design of survey

Administration of survey

Analysis of survey results

Final Excel or PowerPoint presentation.

Materials needed

Example of a survey form created in Word. Save this file to your classroom computer.

Lesson extension activities

Have more advanced students design the survey form in Office Excel. They'll work with the Forms toolbar to add form buttons and boxes. For help designing a form in Office Excel, click the Office Assistant and type "Create a form" in the search field.


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