Assignments
for Environmental Public Opinion and Survey Design
Assignment 1: Survey Overview
Find a survey of interest to you. Makes sure that the sampling procedure and response rates for the poll are available (see Assignment 2). Write a one to two page paper summarizing and analyzing the survey. Include the key results, what else you might have wanted to know, and how you would change the survey. You need not summarize the whole survey, especially if it is long; simply summarize the parts that you find most interesting. When choosing a survey, keep in mind that Assignment 2 asks you to critique the survey procedures, so choose one for which the sampling and survey procedures are available.
Sources
for Polls on the Environment
http://www.pollingreport.com/enviro.htm
You can look at earlier polls too (link at bottom).
You will have to find more information about these polls for Assignment 2, but much of it is available online.
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/issr/da/
http://www.yale.edu/envirocenter/environmentalpoll.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/politics/polls/
Assignment 2: Survey Procedures
Using the survey you chose for the last assignment, describe the sampling procedure and response rates from the poll. Provide a critique of the poll on these grounds. This can be done in one to two pages.
Assignment 3: Survey Analysis
Using the data provided by the MIT PORTL project, write a two to three page paper developing a testable hypothesis and testing that hypothesis. Be sure to provide evidence in the form of graphs or tables as appropriate.
Codebook: http://web.mit.edu/polisci/portl/material/codebooks/Final%20Report.pdf
Data: Excel