Math 020 Sustainability Project

This project is to create awareness about sustainability. Students will have to brainstorm, get the opinion of others using a survey they prepare, prepare a presentation to show their results, interpret the results and make suggestions. Each part is to be given to students separately Task Description In the class (You can find in the appendix a list of videos that students can watch as a preparation for the brainstorming session) try to answer the following questions: 1. What are the most basics things we need to live (things that a person cant live without)? o students should be able to identify water, food and air o you can maybe here try to lead the discussion towards quality of 2. What are the things that make people feel that they are living a decent life? 3. What are the life style changes our grandparents saw during their lives? With what would older people fill in the blank: In our days ______ was so much better 4. What are the effects of some of those changes on our lives? 5. In the year 2200, if we keep on living the way we are, what are the changes you think we can see in the world? What will the people living in 2200 miss seeing or having? When to finish?

Part 1: Brain storming session

Week 6 (March 17 24) (in-class)

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In groups of 5, students are to agree on survey questions. Suggested questions could be: 1. What are the things a person needs to have a decent life? (make a list and add an option for others) 2. What are the things they cant live without? (make a list and add an option for others) 3. What do people miss the most from the past? (make a list and add an option for others) 4. What are the things they would like to have in the future? Part 2: (make a list and add an option for others) Survey 5. What are the things they worry their grandchildren wont have Preparation a chance to see? (make a list and add an option for others) 6. What are the things they are afraid will happen in the world and affect the quality of life of their grandchildren? (make a list and add an option for others) I am adding in the Appendix a document about important features of a good survey. I got this document from Tandy Baily from the Foundation English team. Each student needs to interview 20 people (they can do face to face interview or send link of survey in any way they feel appropriate: email, bb, twitter, facebook) Each student is to collate the data, from her team, for one of the questions Each student is to prepare a presentation (3-5min) on the results she got. In the presentation she should include: An introduction (talking about the idea she will present)

Week 7 (March 24 28)

Part 3

Week 7 (March 24 28) Week 8 ( April 14 18) Week 8 ( April 14 18)

Part 4 Part 5

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 Some pictures to show past, present and possible future (positive or negative) situations Interview results: o In tabular form o In percentage form o In graph form (I am researching easy to use apps) Interpretation of the results Suggestions for a better future

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Appendix 1/3 Suggestion of Apps that can be used (give the student the freedom to suggest or use others): For Survey: PollDaddy, SurveyMonkey For graphs: Graph For presentation: Haiku Deck N.B. you can find the links to those apps in the Google Drive document for apps Appendix 2/3 Related videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDI7TuQGJyg UAE Ecological Footprint Animation- Arabic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGTPKKOVoz4 food waste = money waste https://www.ead.ae/en/news/thin.befor.youwaste.aspx EADs Think Before You Waste Campaign Reaches Out to 49,405 people http://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/food-waste-in-ramadan-is-a-cause-for-concern.html Food waste in Ramadan is a cause for concern

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Appendix 3/3 Check that your survey does the following: Write good questions Decide what you really need to know, what would be useful to know and what would be unnecessary. Keep the former, keep a few of the useful and throw out the rest. If the question is not important enough to include in your report, it probably should not be used. Be Concise Poor: How do you feel about building an ice skating rink next to the Ladies Club in Abu Dhabi? Better: An ice skating rink should be built next to the Ladies Club in Abu Dhabi. 1 = Strongly agree 2 = Agree 3 = Disagree 4 = Strongly disagree Make questions concrete Poor:What is your marital status? ___ Married___ Single Better:What is your marital status? ___ Married ___ Divorced ___ Separated ___ Widowed

___ Never Married

Start with interesting questions Start the survey with questions that are likely to sound interesting and attract the respondents' attention. Save the questions that might be difficult or threatening for later. Voicing questions in the third person can be less threatening than questions voiced in the second question. For example, ask: "How do your colleagues feel about management?" rather than "How do you feel about management?"

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Don't write leading questions Leading questions demand a specific response. For example: the question "Which is the best place to build a new gym at ADWC" leads respondents to pick a place without first determining if they even want a new gym. Avoid double negatives Respondents can easily be confused figuring out the meaning of a question that uses two negative words. What type of shopping do you not dislike doing? is better if you say, What type of shopping do you like doing. Use simple, clear language Poor: How often do you punish your toddler? Better: How often do you put your toddler into timeout? Check only one. ___ Once a day ___ Several times a day ___ Once a week ___ Several times a week week ___ Several times a week

___ Once a

Put your questions in a logic order The issues raised in one question can influence how people think about subsequent questions. It is good to ask a general question first and then ask more specific questions. For example, you should avoid asking about the effects of eating too much fast food before you find out how often the person eats fast food. Order of Questions: ___Natural sequence of time ___Most familiar to least familiar ___Avoid items that look alike ___Sensitive questions should be well after the start of the survey ___End with easy questions
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Pre-test your survey It is better to identify a problem during the pretest than after you have published the survey. Before sending a survey to a target audience, send it out as a test to a small number of people. After they have completed the survey, brainstorm with them to see if they had problems answering any questions. It would help if they explained what the question meant to them and whether it was valid to the questionnaire or not. Introduction Once a recipient gets your survey, you may still need to motivate him or her to complete it. The introduction offers an excellent place to provide the motivation. A good introduction should be short and includes: Purpose of the survey Why it is important to hear from the correspondent What may be done with the results and what possible impacts may occur with the results Address identification Person to contact for questions about the survey. Due date for response Sources: adapted from http://www.accesscable.net/~infopoll/tips.htm and http://www.keene.edu/crc/forms/designingsurveysthatcount.pdf

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