Communication Skills

• Simple to complex surveys from kindergarten through grade 12 expose students to the process of gathering information for a specific purpose. These activities require students to observe and acknowledge others' opinions and expose students to opinions that differ from their own. Survey activities also support the application of communication skills involving positive social interactions. This provides teachers with the opportunity to monitor, guide and correct undesirable social behaviors and encourage the use of appropriate communication skills when interacting with peers.
  
  

Subject-Area Skills

• Survey activities support students' processing of subject-area skills and knowledge. Understanding important concepts for a subject area is enhanced through survey activities. For example, a science class survey may require students to gather information regarding classmates' eating habits and favorite foods. Students may use the results to determine healthy versus unhealthy choices compared against recommended servings of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. This is in addition to other post-survey questions that may be part of the survey design.
  
  

Literacy Skills

• Literacy skills are applied during survey activities. Students must report information verbally and in writing. Depending on the design of the survey task, the literacy skills addressed include drawing conclusions, making inferences and comparing and contrasting information. Students are also required to use skills for understanding narrative as well as persuasive passages, depending on post-survey activities. Narrative writing is a basic requirement in reporting findings from a survey, since students are often required to describe processes used in gathering information.
  
  

Mathematics Skills

• Students apply mathematics skills to complete survey activities in different subjects. They use the information collected, which is in the form of numbers, to address specific task-related questions or requirements. For example, students may be required to create a bar graph, flow chart, pie graph or other visual interpretation of survey findings. Depending on the survey activity design, these visual representations may be done by hand or using technology programs, further increasing the skills needed to successfully complete the survey activity.