Group #, leader, other members

Summary (Short Title)

Outcome

1. Jon Shearin, Mike Matthews, Paul Parmley

Attitudes toward tattoos and body piercing

Among both NCS and STA Upper School students polled, preference was highest for conventional tattoo, followed by body piercing, then by branded tattoo. Authors reported some evidence that for all three types of body art, acceptance rates seemed higher among older students.

2. Tad Bardenwerper, Marc Peñalver-Aguila, Colin Zima

Greatest athlete of the 20th century

STA Upper School students polled expressed clear choice for Michael Jordan. Some form-related differences in opinion appeared, but sample was too small to permit analysis of differences in opinion related to the sports in which subjects participate at STA.

3. Fareed Melhem, Nate Guggenheim, Arthur Peterson

STA/NCS fast food preferences

Favorite fast food restaurant is McDonald’s, by a large margin, for both NCS and STA Upper School students. Estimated mean number of visits per month to fast food establishments is sharply higher for older students at both schools. Girls report eating fast food only about half as often as boys. (The group attributed this difference to girls’ greater attention to what they eat, but response bias is also a possibility.) This table summarizes the results, excluding outliers:

Table 1. Mean number of monthly fast-food visits.

NCS

STA

Grades 9 and 10

2.0

4.8

Grades 11 and 12

4.8

9.5

Total

3.6

7.4

4. Sam Goldberg, Jake Lau, François Rodamar

Presidential election poll (intended for publication in The Saint Albans News, but article was cut before deadline)

Straw presidential poll conducted just before the election showed that STA Upper School students favored Al Gore over George W. Bush, 52% to 35%, with 5% supporting other candidates and 8% undecided. Gore won in every form and was especially strong among African American students, who favored Gore over Bush, 67% to 13%.

5. Chris Eby, Yoon Cho, David Pachner

Death penalty attitudes vs. choice of presidential candidate

Opinions on the death penalty ("support," "don’t support," or "no opinion") showed no trends across forms among the STA Upper School students polled. However, party affiliation showed a strong association, with Republicans favoring the death penalty by 50% to 22%, with 28% undecided, while Democrats opposed the death penalty by 42% to 29%, with 29% undecided. Those who identified themselves as neither Republican nor Democrat opposed the death penalty by 40% to 7%, with 53% undecided.

Other survey questions assessed whether knowledge of Gore’s being an STA alumnus affected subjects’ choice of presidential candidate (virtually everyone said "not much") and the support among students for lowering the drinking age (68% in favor, 32% opposed). Most of those who favored lowering the drinking age said that 18 should be the new limit.

6. Brian Rabbitt, Portia Mills, Nik Raman

Student opinions about D.C. curfew

Of STA Upper School students polled, 73% disapproved of D.C. curfew law, with 13.5% in favor and 13.5% having no opinion. However, the law seems ineffective: Most students reported that they had never been affected by the curfew and had never changed plans as a result of it. None of the 52 students polled had ever been stopped by the police for a curfew violation.

7. John Martin, Claire DeBord, Michael McCullough

Alternate presidential polling method (subjects forced to indicate a choice between two names at a time)

In a straw poll of a randomized but unweighted convenience sample of students, faculty, and staff, support for Al Gore predominated in four hypothetical pairings of candidates. (Each respondent indicated a choice in all four pairings.) However, "swing voters" (i.e., those who did not always choose the same party in the pairings) overwhelmingly supported John McCain, who lost in the primaries to George W. Bush. Conclusion: In a close election such as the election of 2000, parties should give more thought to having a candidate that attracts swing voters. The authors stated that in a Gore-McCain race, at least if the trends seen in their sample were present across the nation, McCain might well have won by a wide margin.

8. Will Wilkins, Josh Holland, Mr. Constantine

Students’ preference for how to choose lunch waiters

Random sample of STA Upper School students (stratified by form, but unweighted) overwhelmingly preferred "freshman wait" to community wait, playing a game, or asking a question as a way of determining waiters at refectory tables. Form III (freshmen) preferred asking a question, which was the second most popular option among the Upper School as a whole.

9. Ruben Harutunian, Rob Gillette, Simon Quint

What other school would you have attended if not STA?

SRS of 50 STA Upper School students indicated the school they would have attended if not STA, with 14 (28%) listing Landon and 10 (20%) listing Sidwell. The remaining 52% were scattered among a dozen or so schools that compete for the same pool of students. When citing primary reasons for their choice, all respondents chose academics, sports, or location from a list of six choices. Form III (freshmen) cited sports slightly more often than academics, a difference that was not statistically significant because of the small subsample, but all other forms cited academics first, sports second, and location third as reasons for choosing STA.

10. Ed Ferrer, Robby Andreoli, Camille Green

Attempt to predict students’ choice for best all-around STA athlete

Stratified random poll of STA Upper School attempted to predict outcome of the Robert Rice award competition for best all-around Upper School athlete. Results were inconclusive, with large differences in response patterns by under- and upperclassmen. A total of 22 different nominees split the 52 votes from the respondents. Project included good analysis of sources of possible bias and difficulties in conducting a poll of this type.

11. Sam Mock, Will Rawson, David Waikart

STA/NCS attitudes toward U.S. nuclear attack on Hiroshima in 1945

Stratified random poll of STA and NCS Upper Schools sought association between gender and party affiliation and support for the Hiroshima atomic bomb decision. Results, though based on small subsamples, show interesting effects based on both gender and party.

"Do you agree or disagree with America’s decision to drop the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima in 1945?"

Table 2. Responses to the question, "Do you agree or disagree with America’s decision to drop the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima in 1945?"

Agree

Disagree

No Opinion

Male Democrats

17
(57%)

8
(27%)

5
(17%)

Female Democrats

10
(23%)

33
(75%)

1
(2%)

Male Republicans

11
(79%)

2
(14%)

1
(7%)

Female Republicans

5
(71%)

2
(29%)

0
(0%)