I conducted a small-scale survey of high school students, asking the question, "How much do you know about energy consumption, ethanol, and alternative energy sources?" Before I examined the results, I hypothesized that most students would select either choice B)"I know some" or choice C) "I know little". The students I surveyed did not disprove my thoughts. Out of forty students, eleven said they knew only "some" about energy consumption, ethanol, and alternative energy sources, while twelve said they know "little", and nine admitted to knowing "practically nothing". Only eight of the forty were knowledgeable enough to claim they know "a lot" about the topic. 
I broke the results down by grade, just to be more specific than lumping everyone into one large group, but this hardly brings anything new to observation, because I only surveyed ten students from each grade (out of around 350 students per grade). I also made a chart of people's choices grouped by gender, to see if anything interesting came from it. We see that fewer females chose either of the extremes, but I really think this might be because they are less outspoken. In contrast, more males picked choices A)"I know a lot" and D)"I know practically nothing" than I had expected. Despite these two trivialities, the survey still shows that the least popular response
was A)" I know a lot". You ask, "Why is this significant?". It is important because I truly believe in order to make an "informed decision", one must be informed. Based on this small survey, we conclude that only eight out of forty students, a mere twenty percent, can be considered informed. Now you ask, "Why does it matter how "informed" a bunch of high school students are?" The answer to that, my friend, is actually quite simple. High school students are "on the brink", so to speak. On the verge of adulthood, and independence, and soon to become eligible voters. What does our future look like if we have a bunch of ill-informed and uneducated voters? Similar to today, in my opinion. Full of thick headed people with one-sided arguments. Polls show that most people favor candidates who support ethanol. I don't mean to be pessimistic, but I interpret this to mean that the majority of people aren't informed about the cost of ethanol. Let us just hope that people soon realize the necessity of looking at all sides of issues and accumulating knowledge before they make decisions.
I broke the results down by grade, just to be more specific than lumping everyone into one large group, but this hardly brings anything new to observation, because I only surveyed ten students from each grade (out of around 350 students per grade). I also made a chart of people's choices grouped by gender, to see if anything interesting came from it. We see that fewer females chose either of the extremes, but I really think this might be because they are less outspoken. In contrast, more males picked choices A)"I know a lot" and D)"I know practically nothing" than I had expected. Despite these two trivialities, the survey still shows that the least popular response
was A)" I know a lot". You ask, "Why is this significant?". It is important because I truly believe in order to make an "informed decision", one must be informed. Based on this small survey, we conclude that only eight out of forty students, a mere twenty percent, can be considered informed. Now you ask, "Why does it matter how "informed" a bunch of high school students are?" The answer to that, my friend, is actually quite simple. High school students are "on the brink", so to speak. On the verge of adulthood, and independence, and soon to become eligible voters. What does our future look like if we have a bunch of ill-informed and uneducated voters? Similar to today, in my opinion. Full of thick headed people with one-sided arguments. Polls show that most people favor candidates who support ethanol. I don't mean to be pessimistic, but I interpret this to mean that the majority of people aren't informed about the cost of ethanol. Let us just hope that people soon realize the necessity of looking at all sides of issues and accumulating knowledge before they make decisions.
No comments:
Post a Comment