Research Analysis
This assignment will give you a chance to practice what you’ve learned about analyzing survey results.
Review all responses to the survey: Are Vending Machines Sales of Food and Drinks In Schools Considered To Be Beneficial or Detrimental To The Daily Health and Well-
being Of Students? The list of responses is included in the Homework 3 assignment folder.
Begin by reading through all of the responses.
Then:
Develop a list of categories that can be used to describe the overall results of the survey. Obviously, given the wording of the question, one categorization will be
Yes/No or Beneficial/Detrimental. A third category might be Neutral or Non-Committal. But you need to look at the answers in a more detailed way. What categories of
reasons did people cite when they stated their positive or negative opinion? The idea is to create groups of response types, then
Go back and determine what percentage of the responses fell into each of the categories. There are fifty responses, so this will make determining percentages
relatively easy. No matter how complex, each answer should only go into one category. Try to get a sense of the overall sentiment of the respondent, if they have
provided what appears at first to be an answer that could be categorized in different ways.
Let’s take the first answer as an example: “ Children with limited allowance may buy junk and have no money for a nutritious lunch.” This answer would be categorized
first as Detrimental. In addition, the explanation given relates to the possibility of Poor Nutrition.
As you analyze each answer and try to create categories, you will at first end up with too many categories. Once you have done a first analysis, you probably will want
to go back through your list of categories and combine some. You should aim for no more than 3-5 categories under the general heading Detrimental and about the same
number under Beneficial. You also may have some categories under the Neutral heading, if some answers can’t be categorized otherwise.
Fill in the chart below, listing the categories of reasons under each heading.
– Headings, Categories of Responses under each heading, and percentage of answers in each category. Of course, the percentages across all categories should add up to
100%. Keep in mind that there is no one right answer to this assignment.
DETRIMENTAL
%
NEUTRAL
%
BENEFICIAL
%
Name
This assignment will give you a chance to practice what you’ve learned about analyzing survey results.
Review all responses to the survey: Are Vending Machines Sales of Food and Drinks In Schools Considered To Be Beneficial or Detrimental To The Daily Health and Well-
being Of Students? The list of responses is included in the Homework 3 assignment folder.
Begin by reading through all of the responses.
Then:
Develop a list of categories that can be used to describe the overall results of the survey. Obviously, given the wording of the question, one categorization will be
Yes/No or Beneficial/Detrimental. A third category might be Neutral or Non-Committal. But you need to look at the answers in a more detailed way. What categories of
reasons did people cite when they stated their positive or negative opinion? The idea is to create groups of response types, then
Go back and determine what percentage of the responses fell into each of the categories. There are fifty responses, so this will make determining percentages
relatively easy. No matter how complex, each answer should only go into one category. Try to get a sense of the overall sentiment of the respondent, if they have
provided what appears at first to be an answer that could be categorized in different ways.
Let’s take the first answer as an example: “ Children with limited allowance may buy junk and have no money for a nutritious lunch.” This answer would be categorized
first as Detrimental. In addition, the explanation given relates to the possibility of Poor Nutrition.
As you analyze each answer and try to create categories, you will at first end up with too many categories. Once you have done a first analysis, you probably will want
to go back through your list of categories and combine some. You should aim for no more than 3-5 categories under the general heading Detrimental and about the same
number under Beneficial. You also may have some categories under the Neutral heading, if some answers can’t be categorized otherwise.
Fill in the chart below, listing the categories of reasons under each heading.
– Headings, Categories of Responses under each heading, and percentage of answers in each category. Of course, the percentages across all categories should add up to
100%. Keep in mind that there is no one right answer to this assignment.
DETRIMENTAL
%
NEUTRAL
%
BENEFICIAL
%
Are Vending Machines Sales of Food and Drinks In Schools Considered To
Be Beneficial or Detrimental To The Daily Health and Well-being Of
Students?
1. Children with limited allowance may buy junk and have no money for a
nutritious lunch.
2. Detrimental if they snack only and don’t eat a real lunch or breakfast meal.
3. Most items sold are high in fat and sugar content with a minimum nutritional
value. Students would buy these foods rather than eating a nutritional meal
in the cafeteria.
4. Detrimental because energy levels and ability to concentrate decrease when
students eat sugary meals. This results in lower academic performance.
5. Not beneficial except for students who do not buy lunch.
6. Provides an eating alternative that is not the variety and nutritional content
of the foods provided in the cafeteria.
7. Detrimental in that food high in sugar and fat are sold.
8. Vending machines are detrimental to the daily health of our students. Each
day that a student participated in the sales or just observes the sales, we
have encouraged unhealthy behaviors. A student needs good nutrition to
learn.
9. In emergency situations or to shorten serving lines it could be beneficial,
beyond those two exceptions, it is detrimental.
10.I believe vending machine sales would be detrimental to the daily health of
our students. The snacks sold in the cafeteria meet the guidelines outlined by
the state for food for nutritional value.
11.Students are choosing foods of minimal nutritional value rather than foods
that are nutritionally sound.
12.Snack foods/drinks don’t fill up hungry students and high sugar/fat items are
not good for maintaining alertness.
13.It contributes to the problem in America’s youth of obesity.
14.If the upper grades are not schedule to eat (until) late then they will slip into
the cafeteria and get something from the machines (Coke is usually
preferred) so therefore they do not get anything nutritious.
15.It is not beneficial to health/well-being but it makes needed money for the
schools.
16.Children spent their pocket money on high-fat/high sugar products.
17.Students are consuming more empty calories. Obesity is definitely a problem
for a great percentage of children.
18.Fosters poor nutrition habits. Between “take out” and vending machines, we
wonder why we are becoming an obese society?
19.The effects are evident in health problems, obesity, etc. When students only
had cafeteria items available they were limited, but too have much healthier
choices.
20.Bottom line—it’s all about profit. A new middle school has just opened and
only have to order milk one time per week—everyone goes to the vending
machines. They need their calcium during this growth stage.
21.Obviously a detriment because I would hope that they would eat a balanced
meal or something besides just a snack.
22.Students are getting full on snacks between breakfast and lunch and don’t
want healthier lunch choices.
23.The foods in the machines are of minimal nutritional value—high in sugar and
fat. Students consume them rather than a variety of foods with high
nutritional value.
24.Absolutely detrimental. They promote poor eating habits. Yes, but they
contribute to the extremely high ADD/ADHD children we have.
25.It helps us to implement a behavior program. They are rewarded for positive
behavior for having chances to purchase snacks.
26.Students who daily vend food and drink cannot be hungry enough to eat the
nutritious meal provided.
27.Beneficial. We have one machine and it contains juice drinks.
28.Vending machines are detrimental to students’ health. Jr. high and high
school students need extra calories but machines have no healthy choices
other than water in the drink machines.
29.Actually, I believe having the water available throughout the day has a
positive impact in that it encourages water consumption.
30.Many of the vending machine choices are considered healthy snacks—peanut
butter, peanuts, juice drinks, etc.
31.Vending machine sales are beneficial to students, especially those who stay
after school for school events such as band practice, football, etc. if the
students have good choices in the machines. Many students need an
afternoon supplement for energy. They also provide additional funding for
the school.
32.Many of these foods do have nutritional value and students benefit from
supplementing their meals.
33.Our USDA approved menus are nutritious and healthy for students. The food
in our vending machine are mostly what I would call “junk food”.
34.Teaches poor alternative to healthy eating food choices. Teaches that money
is more important than good nutrition.
35.Vending machines in moderation should be allowed. The sale of the items
benefit students in the school after normal school hours, after-school
activities and summer school activities.
36.The food and drinks in vending machine are higher in fat and often offer little
or no nutritional value.
37.Juices sold are of great nutritional value.
38.Detrimental—affects concentration, mental alertness, nutritional food intake
choices.
39.The cafeteria begins serving at 10:45 and the children are hungry by snack
time (2:00) and some of the children go to day care and sitters after school.
40.Students will not make good choices when bombarded with poor choices.
41.Students consuming foods of minimal nutritional value have a greater
incidence of obesity, learning problems, dental caries, and long term related
illness. Diabetes has increased at a alarming rate
42.The vending machine items are considered to be supplemental to our
breakfast and lunch program, not a replacement for them. Used on this
basis, they should not be detrimental to student’s health and well-being.
43.Parents request that snacks be made available to students. Students who will
not eat from the lunch room do get some nourishment from the vending
machines. This is an option and can only be purchased if parents send the
money for them to do so.
44.Children are going to eat what they are going to eat. Meal patterns begin at
home.
45.Only eating sugary vending machine food and drink items cause blood sugar
levels to shoot way up…….this not only affects a person’s mood and alertness
but also cognitive skills, memory, arithmetic skills, reading speed, and
attention span. High caloric sugary foods also lead to less exercise and
childhood obesity.
46.Detrimental if it is used in place of eating in the cafeteria.
47.Could only be beneficial if milk or juices were sold.
48.Caffeine is a drug and sugar decays teeth. Caffeine curves appetite and
prevents students from eating.
49.Both—they provide a snack but are not healthy foods.
50.Machines are detrimental if they only offer poor choices that are available to
students prior to mealtime. We recently installed a milk vending machine in
one of our high schools. It contains milk products and 100% juice products.
Students are making healthy choices now that it is available. The machine
stays on at all times. I would rather see a student selecting milk or juice
products from a vending machine than going hungry all morning. As funding
allows, we will install this machine in all high schools and middle schools in
the future. If changes in vending machines sales occur, it should be to
promote healthy choices.
