Week 2: Facing my Fears

Welcome back! This week is super exciting because you will get to dive into what it is like to go to an in-person event.

On Monday and Tuesday, I was preparing for my in-person survey on Wednesday. I printed out all the surveys and confirmed my attendance with the event coordinators. 

On Wednesday, though, I had trouble sleeping. I kept thinking about showing up to Irvington High School as a complete outsider. I woke up at the crack of dawn (6:16 am) and while I was showering I realized I had so much I needed to do. I had forgotten to print the images assisting the surveys, and I realized I wanted to also make an online version just in case. So I quickly wrapped up my shower, got dressed, and ran to my computer. After making the additional material, I scarfed down my breakfast and left at 7:18 am. 

I needed to be there at 7:30 am. 

Don’t worry, I didn’t speed. But in the car I was planning my reasoning for why I was late. I got lost? I made a wrong turn? I didn’t know where to park?

However, when I arrived, they had just started setting up, so it was all fine. One of the students already knew me! Which was scary. 

I kinda just stood there awkwardly as they set up their equipment. They had a bike that powered a blender — and then they made fresh smoothies. The girl who knew me was super sweet and directed people towards me. 

I was surprised that people agreed to fill out the survey. One issue I found, though, is that many people didn’t understand the different bike safety infrastructure — even though I had printed out images of them. Many people didn’t care about the biking infrastructure because they don’t bike. Although I cannot fix the latter issue, I may need to think about how I present the options for next week. (I can’t believe I am going to go through this again next week). 

It went by really fast. We only really had the booth set up for around 30 minutes. 

Overall, though, I think it was super successful! The statistical goal is to get around 0.1N surveys, with N being the number of students (around two thousand). I most definitely did not get 200 surveys, but another statistical goal used is to get 30 surveys, and I think I got close to that. 

As I was walking off campus, I thought, what if someone thinks I am ditching school? Obviously, no one cared though, so I strolled away as fast as I could, dying to leave. 

Join me next week to see how my surveying goes at Washington High School!