Could you be my survey participant?

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albzhangtx
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Joined: Fri Sep 25, 2015 1:22 pm
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Need Science Fair Survey Participants

Post by albzhangtx »

I am doing science fair project, and my teacher says I need to try and have 500 participants. The survey is on how much people in different age groups fear death. I wonder how to find some elderly people (70+) online to take my survey--I will want to try and not have to go in person if possible. Any suggestions?
By the way, I am not only looking for elderly people, I need other age groups too.

Thank you in advance!
Last edited by albzhangtx on Sat Sep 26, 2015 5:57 am, edited 1 time in total.
dcnick96
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Re: How to get survey participants for science fair project

Post by dcnick96 »

Hello.

500 participants is a lot! Does the teacher give a reason for requiring so many subjects? The more responses you have, the less "margin of error" you report in your results. For example, look at sample size at the link below.
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ants.shtml

When taking a survey, you are only asking a fraction of the population. You can't ask every human being on earth, so you are only taking a sample. When taking only a sample, you risk reporting results different from if you asked every human being. Therefore, based on the number of people you ask, you report your result (50% of respondents answered X) and you report a margin of error (plus or minus 5%). Meaning, the true result is likely between 45% and 55%...thats 50% plus or minus 5%).

The link above gives you a calculated margin of error to report based on sample size. If you only ask 10 people, your margin of error is 31.6%. So, if your survey response is 50%, you can conclude the true response is likely between 18.4% and 81.6%. That's not a very useful result! If you ask 100 people, your margin of error is 10%. Therefore, you can conclude the true response is likely between 40% and 60%. That is a more useful result. With 500 respondents, your margin of error is 4.5%. Some scientific questions demand smaller margins of error. However, it can be very challenging to get such a large sample size.

For your purposes, I think 10% margin of error (100 respondents) would be acceptable. Perhaps discuss this with your teacher and see what he / she says.

To get the diversity and sample size you are looking for (different age groups), I recommend not only surveying friends, students, teachers, and parents; but also look into an online survey website. One free website is below. You can find others by Googling "free online survey tool." Be sure to read the fine print. Most websites only offer limited options for free.
http://www.surveymonkey.com

Also be sure to check out this website about designing a survey.
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ?from=Blog

I hope this helps. Be sure to write back if you have any more questions.
Good luck!
Deana
albzhangtx
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Re: How to get survey participants for science fair project

Post by albzhangtx »

Thank you very much! I think my teacher just made a general estimate, and not something definite. I'll talk to him and see. Also, could anyone here take my survey? I need some help spreading the word online.

Survey link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3FJ9KSX

A big thanks to anyone who takes my survey!
324B21
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Re: How to get survey participants for science fair project

Post by 324B21 »

albzhangtx wrote:Thank you very much! I think my teacher just made a general estimate, and not something definite. I'll talk to him and see. Also, could anyone here take my survey? I need some help spreading the word online.

Survey link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3FJ9KSX

A big thanks to anyone who takes my survey!


Absolutely! Happy to help. Good luck with this project. Keep those solicitations up though with outside sources as you wouldn't want a specific slice of representation like scientists/science minded individuals to flood your survey. The idea is to get a wide range of participants, and it looks like you are well on the way to doing that with your ideas!

Elizabeth
HowardE
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Re: Need Science Fair Survey Participants

Post by HowardE »

I would also suggest that you locate some retirement villages in your area, print out some copies of your survey and ask nicely at the village if they'd help you get residents to fill them out. You'll find that not many older people in the 65+ range spend a lot of time online, and relatively few of that number will bump into your survey request. As the other expert said, if you rely on posting here, you're mostly going to get other science students answering your questions.
albzhangtx
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Sep 25, 2015 1:22 pm
Occupation: Student

Could you be my survey participant?

Post by albzhangtx »

I am doing a science fair survey on how fear of death of people at different ages. Could any of you do me a favor by participating in my survey? I would like a variety of ages, if possible. Thank you to anyone who can answer!

Link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3FJ9KSX

PS--Could you spread the word? I need a lot of participants, so please tell others if you can!
324B21
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Re: Could you be my survey participant?

Post by 324B21 »

Absolutely. Happy to help with what looks like an interesting project!

Just bear in mind that as with any survey, you are looking for a wide range of participants. In this board you are going to get a lot of science careered/science minded individuals that might lower this randomness. Please make sure you are soliciting for survey responses with everyone so you don't find your numbers skewed heavily by those in the science community.

Good luck!!

Elizabeth
PharmaMan
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Re: Could you be my survey participant?

Post by PharmaMan »

Hello,

I'm also happy to help out with your survey. Elizabeth made a great point; be sure to get a wide audience to survey as this will help to get different perspectives.

Best,
PharmaMan
albzhangtx
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Sep 25, 2015 1:22 pm
Occupation: Student

Re: Could you be my survey participant?

Post by albzhangtx »

Do you know of any websites were I could post my survey for free? I tried pretending to be an old person on a senior forum and they kicked me out. I know of SurveyTandem, but that is not giving me too many participants.
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