Ask Thirty People
Design a question, ask thirty people, and find out whether your hunch survives.
2 weeks🔢 Math✏️ Writing🌍 Social Studies
What you need
- paper or a form
- thirty willing people
- a way to draw a chart
Nothing to buy and nothing to print — if you do not have one of these, swap it for whatever you do have.
The steps
Day 1
One question
Write one question with a small, fixed set of answers. Not two questions in a coat.
✍️ Write a few sentences
Day 2
Predict
Write what you think the answer will be, and why, before asking anyone.
✍️ Write a few sentences
Day 3
Test it on three
Ask three people. Did any of them misunderstand the question? Fix it.
📋 Make a list
Say this: “If someone misreads your question, that is your fault, not theirs.”
Day 6
Ask thirty
Collect thirty responses. Record each one as it comes.
📊 Make a chart or table
Day 8
Chart it
Make a chart. Choose the type on purpose and be able to defend the choice.
📊 Make a chart or table
Day 10
Write the finding
State what you found, whether it matched your prediction, and who you did NOT ask.
✍️ Write a few sentences
How to score it
You score this, not us. Pick the description that actually matches what they did.
Question design
- 1. Ambiguous or double
- 2. Clear
- 3. Clear and piloted
- 4. Clear, piloted, and revised because of the pilot
Sample
- 1. Fewer than ten
- 2. Around twenty
- 3. Thirty
- 4. Thirty, and the write-up names who was left out
Honesty
- 1. Claimed more than the data shows
- 2. Stated the result
- 3. Stated the result and compared it to the prediction
- 4. Stated the result, the prediction, and a limitation
What goes in the portfolio
The question, the raw responses, a chart, and a written finding that states its own limitations.