Stellar Surveys

This is a "How-To" post for students.

You want answers to your questions. Should gum be allowed in schools? Is knuckle-cracking bad for you? What flavor cake do you like best? Which material should I use to make hats? Would you purchase my creation? What should I practice drawing? It's time to create a stellar survey!

Five Tips to Creating Stellar Surveys
1. Design your survey first. What is your goal? What do you feel you NEED to know in order to guide your research? Do you want to include opinion questions? Questions on a scale of 1-10 (with explanations of which is which)? True/False? Multiple choice? Rankings? Open-ended? How long or short should it be to keep the attention of the people responding? How can you word each question to ensure an honest answer? This step is a TON of work! Done right, it will pay off when you start seeing responses.
2. Use a Google form or a site such as Survey Monkey. This way, you can easily access respondents answers in a pre-made spreadsheet. You can also share these results with others, with one link. The best reason to use a Google form or Survey Monkey is that it's easy to share - through email, Twitter, on your blog, on your class website, or on this Survey Central document. The more results you get, the more accurate your research. Click here for Google form directions.
3. Do not make every question "required." You will turn off many possible participants if you do.
4. Include a question about age. Use age ranges, such as 5-10, 11-15, 16-20, etc. This way, you can organize responses to fit your needs.
5. Leave room for the unexpected. If you are using multiple choice, consider using "other" or "none of the above" as a choice.

If you use another tip, please let me know in the comments, and I'll add it to this list!