Northern Climate Change Schools Program

Joanne McGrath worked with ten Grade 5 students in an environmental option to create a survey to use in the school. The survey was designed to provide information about how students commuted to and from school every day.

Step One: The questions for the survey were decided.

Click the image for a larger version of the survey form

Step Two: The survey instrument was created, including pictures of trucks and cars so that the younger students would have visual cues for their answers.

Step Three: Students working to design the survey were coached about how to ask survey questions. After some practice with each other. These 10 students went from class to class to conduct the survey.

Each student had two surveys to conduct with two students in each class. This was particularly important for the younger grades because we wanted to ensure relatively reliable results.

For the older grades, the students were available to explain the questions to the individual students and to collect the completed surveys.

Step Four: The ten students who conducted the survey helped to collate the data to report the results.

Questions and results

1. How do you usually come to school in the morning? (Pictures were used on the survey used with the students)
   
   • Taxi: 2
   • Truck/car: 100
   • Bus: 68
   • Bicycle: 2
   • Walking: 70
   
   
2. How do you usually go home after school? (Pictures were used on the survey used with the students)
   
   • Taxi: 2
   • Truck/car: 58
   • Bus: 69
   • Bicycle: 2
   • Walking: 114
   
   
3. What kind of a car does your family drive?
   
   • SUV: 6
   • Van: 34
   • Small Car: 38
   • Large Truck: 33
   
   
4. If you drive to school in a car, truck or van, how many passengers are there in the vehicle? (do not include the driver)
   
   • 1 passenger: 13
   • 2 passenger: 35
   • 3 passenger: 21
   • 4 passenger: 26
   • 5 passenger: 7
   • 6 passenger: 10
   
   
5. Do you walk to school, ride your bike, rollerblade or skateboard when the weather is warm? (Circle the months)
   
   • We found that collecting this particular data (months of different transportation use) was very unreliable because of the ages of the students that were involved. The students from grades K-3 had a weak concept of the seasons and the travel that they used during the different months of the school year. Because the data was very weak, we chose not to report it. The trend, though, for the older students showed that they were walking and using scooters/bikes more often during the months of September, May and June.
   
   
6. In order for us to calculate the distance you live from school, please write your home address.