Data projects for charities · Maths CAS idea
Design a fair survey for a community organisation
ServiceProject-ready
Help a community organisation design, run and analyse a short survey of the people it serves, so it can plan better services.
Where the maths comes in
Sampling, question wording, bias and summary statistics.
Which CAS strand it fits
- Service: Unpaid, voluntary work with others that also has a learning benefit for you.
Your CAS coordinator decides how an experience counts at your school. Strand summaries are provisional (our words, being checked).
How to run it
- Agree the purpose and audience with the organisation.
- Draft questions, test them on a few people and revise.
- The organisation distributes the survey; you analyse anonymous responses.
- Present results and limitations honestly.
This can grow into a CAS project if your CAS coordinator agrees: see planning a maths CAS project.
How to evidence it
- Survey drafts and test feedback
- Analysis and final summary
- Organisation's feedback
Date everything and keep it in your school's CAS portfolio as you go. More on what counts as evidence.
Reflection prompts
Questions to think about, not answers to copy. Write your reflections in your own words, in whatever form your school accepts.
- How did testing the survey change your questions?
- Whose voices might the survey have missed?
- How did you keep respondents anonymous?
Learning outcomes this often gives a chance to show
- Ethics. What choice in this experience had a right and a wrong way to do it? Whose interests did you have to protect (privacy, safety, fairness), and how?
- Global significance. How does the local need you worked on connect to a wider issue? What did you learn about that issue that you did not know before?
- Collaboration. What did someone else bring that you could not have done alone? Describe a disagreement or a mix-up in the team. How was it resolved?
Whether you meet an outcome depends on what you actually do and reflect on, not on the idea. Outcome labels are our short summaries, being checked.
Safety and ethics
- Anonymous responses only; include a consent statement and say how the data will be used.
- Under-18 respondents need consent arranged through the organisation or school.
Agree every plan with your CAS coordinator first. Safety and ethics for maths CAS.
Need the statistics? The statistics guide (written for the IA) explains tests and charts step by step. Keep CAS and your IA separate.