Public Opinion Poll

Pre-K through Grade 2

Grade 3 through Grade 6

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Grade Levels Grades 4 through 6

Estimated Teaching Time

• In-class setup: 25 minutes
• Data collection/poll-taking: two nights of homework
• Graphing of data: 30 minutes

Interdisciplinary Connections

• Taking a poll and plotting results on a graph (Math)

Objectives

Students will:

• Learn how to conduct a poll.
• Plot the results on a graph.
• Learn how accurate or inaccurate people’s opinions are on how illnesses spread.

What Students Do

Students will take an after-school poll to determine people’s knowledge about the spread of germs and plot the results on a graph.

Materials Required

• “How Are Germs Spread?” poll (blackline master 1.4 PDF)
• Bulletin board graph
• Optional Student graph sheets (based on bulletin board graph) or blank graph paper, one per student

Advanced Preparation

• Duplicate blackline master 1.4 PDF, two per student.
• Create the bulletin board graph:
  1. Write heading at top of board: Let's Take a Poll! How Are Germs Spread?
  2. Number the vertical axis from zero to the total number of people polled.
  3. Label the horizontal axis from “Question 1” to “Question 15.”
  4. Optional Write each question alongside the numbers.

Suggested Sequence

1. Distribute the first copy of the “How Are Germs Spread?” poll to students.
2. Have students use it to poll themselves as the teacher reads off the questions.
3. After answering all questions, discuss the correct responses.
4. Tell students that now that they know the answers to these questions, they will become investigators and conduct a poll to discover people’s knowledge about germs.
5. Distribute the second copy of the poll to students.
6. Tell students that they will read the questions to family or friends outside of the class and will place a tally mark in the appropriate column indicating each person’s response.
7. Instruct the students to share the right answer with the person being polled after each response is given.
8. After all data has been collected, have students work in class to plot the number of people who answered the questions correctly on the graph. This can be done individually, tabulated on the class bulletin board graph or both.

Check for Understanding

• After giving students the poll, discuss the correct answers.
• Discuss the results of the poll. How well informed are most people? If people were better informed, would they likely be healthier?

Extensions

• Determine the following information based on the data collected:
  1. Average number of people who knew the correct answers
  2. Average number of people who did not know the correct answers
  3. Percentage of correct versus incorrect responses
• Design a poster or public-service television spot to communicate one clear message about how germs are spread or to fight a single widely held misconception.

Words to Share

• Poll
• Tally