FRS 003 — Sec. 005 — (1 unit) — CRN 73069 — W 4:10-5:20pm — 5 Wellman
How To Conduct a Survey

Instructor: Christiana Drake, Department of Statistics, College of Letters & Science

Description: The seminar will teach students the basics of conducting a survey and interpreting the data from a survey. Students will need to develop questionnaires to obtain data. They will furthermore learn how to design and take a representative sample, the practical aspects of data collection and how to process data electronically and summarize and interpret simple statistics. There will be weekly assignments, individual assignments and group assignments . Individual assignments will written, group assignments will be oral and written. Students will be asked to produce a final report summarizing their finding. The survey topic will be the students’ choice.

Format: Students will learn how to define a research question that is suitable to conducting a survey. They will also learn how to design a questionnaire and how to define a target population from which to obtain data. They will need to create a sampling list from which a sample can be obtained. The students will learn how to go about collecting data, how to approach sampled units and how to deal with non-response. Data entry, summarizing of information collected and interpreting the results will be part of the seminar as well as producing a final report and preparing a web page with the results. Students will receive written assignments most weeks. Furthermore, students will be required to conduct the survey and enter the data collected into a spreadsheet. Required activities will include weekly homework assignments, reading of scientific papers, design a questionnaire, conduct a survey and analyze the data. Grading: The course grade will be 30% in class participation, 30% individual assignments (students will be expected to present essay style assignments and will be graded on the quality of their write-up). The remaining 40% of the grade will come from the group work performed. Different groups will be assigned different tasks. Group work will not be duplicated by different groups. Grading will be pass/fail.

About the Instructor: Chris Drake is Associate Professor of Statistics. Her primary interest is in applications of statistical methods to epidemiologic data. She has been at UC Davis for 16 years. For more information you can go to her website at http://www.stat.ucdavis.edu/faculty/drake.html.