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VAPING PREVENTION & EDUCATION

Activity: Plan an E⁠-⁠Cigarette Survey

PLAN AN E⁠-⁠CIGARETTE SURVEY

Do your peers understand the health risks of vaping? Use the linked resources below to learn the facts about e⁠-⁠cigarettes and the dangers of vaping. Then, follow the steps below to prepare your survey to find out what your classmates know about e⁠-⁠cigarettes.

illustration of an open magazine

Magazine: The Risks of Vaping

person pointing at a chalkboard

Vaping 101

1. FIND YOUR RESEARCH FOCUS

What would you like to learn from your classmates? Write 3–5 clear and open-ended research focus questions. Try to avoid "yes" or "no" questions. For example, you could ask, "What do my peers know about the health risks of e⁠-⁠cigarettes?" or "What are other factors that may increase or decrease the chance that a teen would try e⁠-⁠cigarettes or other tobacco products?"

2. WRITE SURVEY QUESTIONS

Choose one of the research focus questions from step 1 and record it in the corresponding text box below. Then, write 5-10 specific, close-ended survey questions to get targeted answers from your peers. Questions should narrow in on specific, detailed responses. For example, rather than asking "What do you know about e⁠-⁠cigarettes?" you might ask, "Did you know that most e⁠-⁠cigarettes contain nicotine, an addictive chemical?"

Add Another Question Box

3. MAKE PREDICTIONS

Using your knowledge and your own experiences, predict the findings for each of your questions.

Add Another Question Box

4. COLLECT DATA

Keeping it anonymous, share your survey with different groups of teens, not just your friend group, in order to collect data that accurately represents the diversity of the whole population. In other words, you want a representative sample of teens.

Tip: The more people you include in your survey, the more reliable your results. (The number of people you survey is called your sample size.)

5. ANALYZE YOUR DATA

Organize your data in charts and graphs to see trends.

  • A dot plot shows the difference between individual groups.
  • A line graph represents change over time.
  • A scatter plot shows the relationship between two variables.
  • The mean is the average.
  • The standard deviation is how spread out the data is (variation).

6. PRESENT FINDINGS

Create a presentation for your classmates in the form of a slideshow, a blog post, a short video clip, or a public service announcement campaign series. Be sure to include:

  • Your survey method
  • Text descriptions and visual representations of your data
  • Your conclusions, supported by your calculated data, about the teen population and e⁠-⁠cigarettes