By Penelope Day

Junior Julia Hurynovich typed out the plea to her social media followers one day in mid-January: “You guys should totally take my AP Research survey . . .  it takes ten minutes max!”

 With this, Hurynovich became the latest inductee into a cohort of industrious Murrowites utilizing their classmates and friends as a springboard for student developed research.  

Many Murrowites spread surveys for various research throughout the year, particularly in the months of January and February, when juniors in Murrow’s distinctive AP Capstone program may spread their research surveys. 

Students in AP Capstone’s junior year course, AP Research, spend the entire year focusing on one topic of their choice, which they research in great depth before writing a 5,000 word research paper on it. 

Opening up social media or text messages to find another survey link feels like déjà vu for many students and teachers. In fact, spreading surveys for class projects has become so common that many dub the mid-portion of the school year  “survey season.” 

Mr. Jeremy Rubin, who’s taught AP Research since its advent at Murrow four years ago, said surveys are by far the most popular method of researching that his students do. 

“The great majority of students choose to design surveys as one of their methods each year,” Mr. Rubin said. “As an example, this year there are 47 AP Research students and 43 have created surveys.”

The topics of these surveys vary greatly based on what the students are interested in and choosing to write about. Junior Eva Zeltser, for example, chose to study the Romanticization of the Covid-19 Pandemic, a topic she felt a personal connection to when she chose it. 

“Like most teens during the pandemic, I spent way too much time on TikTok and Instagram and noticed that, as the pandemic went on, people were romanticizing the first few months of quarantine,” Zeltser said. “Despite realizing how messed up that was, I found myself doing it too.”

Hurynovich has a similarly unique topic that she was excited to survey her classmates about. 

“I’m researching how people view horror movies, and the extent to which 20th and 21st century horror movies contribute to the fetishization of serial killers among American young women,” she said.  

Regardless of what topic they chose, Murrow researchers were given extensive guidance on creating questions that could engage their classmates. 

“For me, a successful survey is one that addresses the hypotheses of the student while also engaging their audience,” Mr. Rubin said. “We have all taken surveys voluntarily and involuntarily and know that in general they can be quite boring. However, an expertly crafted survey can hold the attention of the respondent which in turn leads to more reliable, accurate responses.”

In order to ensure that all his students met this requirement, Mr. Rubin took the time to walk his two AP Research classes through the process of crafting their surveys. 

“We had classes on citations, and lessons where you’re actually learning how to create surveys,” Hurynovich said. “I definitely learned a few things, like I didn’t know that you couldn’t make a survey entirely self-devised and that you actually had to find questions that already existed. Overall it was definitely really heavily guided by Mr. Rubin.” 

After creating surveys, the big challenge became garnering an adequate audience of respondents from the Murrow community. 

“I spread my survey using numerous methods,” junior Amy Lin said, “One method was posting it on social media such as Reddit and Instagram. Friends and online users were generous enough to help me answer my survey. I also emailed some teachers to send out my survey to their classes.”

Mr. Rubin also created a spreadsheet of student surveys, which he sent around to members of the Murrow faculty to post on their Google Classrooms. Zeltser found this to be helpful for getting her more responses. 

“The day that the Google Sheet got sent out, the number of survey responses I got jumped from 75 to 120 in just a few hours,” she said. 

Generally, students found the school’s effort this survey season to be satisfactory. Lin said she was able to get most of her data from Murrow students.

“In my opinion, the Murrow community was quite helpful when it came to boosting my survey responses,” Lin said. “About three-fourths of my survey responses were from individuals from the Murrow community. The diversity and uniqueness of the respondents will also contribute a beneficial outcome to my survey data.”

Image: Amy Lin analyzes her data in AP Research class.

Hurynovich, however, has been slightly less content with her responses.

“Sending out to classes only does so much, because there’s only so many kids who are going to actually take the time and answer. And even if they do, you know, I took a look into some of the answers and saw fill in answers of like one letter instead of actual answers,” she said.

Despite these concerns, Mr. Rubin reaffirmed his hope in the “survey season” mentality. 

“As Murrow’s AP Research teacher, I wholeheartedly endorse survey season,” he said. “I think that AP Capstone has finally become part of the DNA of our school. Many students expect to be taking a bunch of surveys for their classmates now and hopefully see it as a way to help fellow Murrowites achieve their goal of writing a 5,000 word research paper.”

Mr. Rubin also stated that he thought the Murrow student body was a good pool for research participants.     

“Murrow is one of the most diverse schools in New York State,” Mr. Rubin proudly said. “We are extraordinarily lucky to have a ‘United Nations-style’ demographic to get a true sampling of the country.”

And AP Research isn’t the only class where students can take advantage of this diversity in their research. Some College Now courses, in social studies and business, also have students survey others as part of assignments. Hurynovich, in particular, also surveyed classmates for her College Now sociology class in the fall, but didn’t rely as heavily on that survey as she is on her one for AP Research. 

“I definitely put more effort into the AP Research survey outreach, because that one I’m more focused on getting responses for, whereas the College Now one was really more of a side extension of my research,” she said.

Overall, there’s one consensus about survey season, no matter the class that students are researching for: it’s numerous benefits for student researchers and the school community as a whole. 

“I think that it is so, so, so important to learn how to collect primary source data while in high school,” Zeltser said. “In my case, I plan on pursuing at least a graduate degree, and I know that research is a crucial part of the graduate, and maybe even undergraduate experience. Going into college with strong knowledge of such an important research skill will help me an immeasurable amount in future years.” 

Mr. Rubin also reinforced the immense benefits of primary source research for students. 

“Anyone can read abstract facts and charts in a journal article, but to create something and put it out into the world is similar to an artist who creates a song, or an author who writes a novel,” Mr. Rubin said. “Something that did not exist before you, now exists. That is the most gratifying part of teaching this class.”

Hurynovich concluded that she wouldn’t be able to investigate her topic to the degree that she is without a survey. 

“My whole hypothesis and its answer kind of lies in the people,” she said. 

Featured image: Julia Hurynovich works on her slideshow for the presentation and oral defense component of her research project. All AP Research students present their findings in front of Mr. Rubin and panelists in late April.