Student Surveys

OVERVIEW:
After hearing the complaints by students about not getting the class they wanted or getting a class that wasn't what they expected, we have decided to help students choose their classes through a rating system which will be conducted through student surveys. Students have also been complaining about normal courses vs. AP courses and whether or not they can handle the work load. A few have noted that AP courses tend to have a lighter work load but students have to be much more proactive about studying. The fact is that few students know about the differences between AP and normal courses and they tend to avoid AP courses because they assume that AP courses have a much larger work load which they can not balance with their other activities. The surveys will contain a rating system of 1-10 regarding the interest level of the class, difficulty, work load, and fun. There will also be a box for more specific comments by students. Surveys targetted towards Freshmen and Sophomores will be issued for just the elective courses they may take since they have little choice in the courses that they take.

Project Outline:
Describe what you see as the end result of your project. What will it look/feel like? How does your project align with our mission and goals as a class?
We will have a compiled list of comments and the top 2 highest average classes of each category. This project will help improve the community of AHS as it will help students be much more informed about their classes and students will have less to complain about their elective classes. Students will be able to better anticipate what they will be in for in a certain class so they'll be able to make better decisions about classes based on their workloads in and out of schools.
What are the obstacles and or challenges that you are anticipating when working on your project?
I expect that we will have challenges in the form of finding a time for all the teacher's to take the survey but we will solve this by ensuring that teachers are given a few days to give the survey to the students so they can work it into their schedule or give it to their students to take at home.
What are the milestones that you are going to meet? Be detailed.
We will have to reach milestones such as making sure we have a good outline for the surveys. Having a time period set for when the surveys should be taken and when they should be completed by. We will also have another milestone for when we should finish compiling the surveys' data.
How will you ensure that you reach your project milestones on the dates listed above? How do you think you will overcome these foreseen obstacles?
We will plan ahead and make sure we meet with people in charge so that we can ensure that all the milestones are met. If there are unforeseen obstacles we will first try to resolve it among ourselves but if that fails we will go to meet with our mentor.
What materials are you going to need to successfully carry out your project?
We will need a lot of paper, cooperation with teachers, a computer, and a printer.
What things besides materials are you going to need to be successful in your project? (examples: people or special training)
We will need to have cooperation with teachers and also we will have to talk to or see examples of what people have done to compile data neatly and in an attractive way.
How many people will need to help you in your project? What do you see their roles being? Be specific.
I have a partner for this project and he will be helping to design the surveys, printing, proof read, and compile data. We will  have one other helper. She will be helping us to compile that data, print, and proof read. She will also take part in helping to make the data compilation look nicer and cleaner.
What is your plan to hold yourself and your group accountable for the success of the project?
To hold myself and my group accountable we will have meetings and talk with each other about what we have done so far and what we need to accomplish next.

21 April 2011
We spoke to Gudor and he agreed to be our mentor for this project. He also gave us ideas about the distribution and how the data we gather will be presented to the students. He also alerted us to concerns about teachers feeling uncomfortable because they don't want students to say that their class are not enjoyable or aren't very educational.