The survey is finally live. A sign by the front desk of Starling Commons says: "Commons Count. Seven days. Every question can be skipped."
Comet bursts in waving a stack of printed sheets. "Answers are already coming in! Let's count them all right now."
Wren spreads the sheets on a workbench. Some answers are on one page and some are on another. "What do you notice?"
"They are everywhere," Comet admits. "I cannot tell who answered what."
Keeper Ines looks up from the desk. "The council will want one clear sheet at the end of the week."
Nova hovers over the bench and projects an empty grid. "Would you like a hint?" she asks. "Give every member one line and every question one place."
Comet turns to you. "You are our data analyst. How should the sheet look?"
How do we record data so it stays useful and honest?
This week the crew runs Commons Count for one week. You will build the data sheet, choose how often to count and label every sheet.
Tables, diagrams, text and other visuals can share what data show. A table is where the crew starts.
The crew's rule is simple. Each member who answers gets one row. Each question gets one column.
The first column holds the member's ID, not a name. That was the privacy pass from last week.
Here are the first five rows. Q3 and Q6 hold written answers, exactly as members typed them.
| ID | Q1 How often | Q2 When | Q3 Add next | Q4 Visits last week | Q5 How answered | Q6 Anything else |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M01 | 3 or more a week | evening | repair table | 4 | screen | (blank) |
| M02 | 1 or 2 a week | afternoon | Longer evening hours | 2 | screen | (blank) |
| M03 | 1 or 2 a week | evening | a quiet room to study | 2 | screen | (blank) |
| M04 | 1 or 2 a week | weekend | longer evenings | 1 | screen | (blank) |
| M05 | 3 or more a week | evening | a quiet room to study | 3 | screen | (blank) |
This is made-up data from the Commons Count story. By the end of the week, the sheet has 40 rows, M01 to M40.
A common list algorithm finds the sum of a list of numbers. A sum is a quick way to check a data sheet.
If every member answered Q1, the Q1 groups must add up to the number of rows.
On her first count, Comet tallied 9, 16 and 14 for the three Q1 choices. That adds up to 39, not 40.
She recounted the middle group and found 17. Now the total checks out.
| Q1 answer | Members |
|---|---|
| less than once a week | 9 |
| 1 or 2 times a week | 17 |
| 3 or more times a week | 14 |
| Total | 40 |
| Statement | True or false? |
|---|---|
| Each member who answers gets one row on the data sheet. | ? |
| Each question gets its own column. | ? |
| The first column holds each member's name. | ? |
| If the Q1 groups add up to 39 on a 40-row sheet, the count needs checking. | ? |
Strong start, data analyst. Tomorrow you will decide how often to count people coming through the Commons door.