The objective of this unit is to develop pupils' skills in gaining information from people, e.g. who to choose, interview skills and questionnaire design.

This unit helps pupils to think about who they might ask to obtain different kinds of information, and how they might go about it. It encourages them to plan interviews and to think about how they will record information from interviews. It also looks at some of the issues to consider in designing simple questionnaires. Some basic guidelines for making questionnaires are suggested, and the pros and cons of different methods of recording answers are presented.

Planning interviews requires the interviewer to know who they should interview to get effective results. Pupils are encouraged to think about who would provide the best source of information and why. The message is that different people know different things. It depends on what you want to find out.

A section in this unit concentrates on getting across an awareness of issues of personal safety: who can be trusted and how to ensure that trusted adults are always informed of your whereabouts.

Pupils have the opportunity to try out planning activities using question words such as 'who', 'what', 'how' and 'why' to complete sentences effectively, as well as blank writing frames to design their own questionnaires.

This unit works best in conjunction with other units such as 'What information', 'Find it on the internet' and 'Looking in books'.

Extension

• Collect different examples of questionnaires for pupils to look at. Discuss when it would be most appropriate to use different types of questions: multiple-choice questions, questions that require qualitative statements, and so on.
• Print out the blank frames provided and get pupils to use them for planning their own questionnaires.
• Find opportunities for pupils to devise different types of questionnaire, e.g. quantitative questionnaires that require numerical data, or qualitative questionnaires that collate views and opinions.
• Reiterate the message about personal safety.