A Student Survey Market Research Project

This project exposes the students to survey research. It includes a presentation of the statistical considerations associated with understanding the population under consideration, sampling requirements, data collection techniques, data analyses, error estimations, and sample to population projections. This thematic unit explores these concepts within survey research as utilized by marketing research companies, and how it can be adapted to the high school classroom in an experimental model.

Most people are affected by the marketing research done by companies. Students who feel that they might eventually start their own small businesses, or enter the field of marketing or survey research, or just want to get a better understanding of why companies make some of their product and marketing decisions will gain a better understanding of some of the statistical and financial aspects and ramifications inherent in and resulting from sound market knowledge. The project explores the two questions, what are the underlying statistical principles, and how can they be explored in the classroom with simple survey experiments conducted by the students?

The grade level for this project is expected to include, but not limited to students taking an Algebra 2 class, which includes minimal coverage of probability and statistics, or the high school statistics or economics classes.