The chart to the left is a approximate representation of the CYHS students that have jobs. A total of 364 students were surveyed from grades 10-12. It's around 50% greater than my initial prediction.
Determining the amount of students in any given school that work was only part of this projects' goal. I strived to determine the reasons that students get jobs. Deeper down the rabbit hole than that, I had ideas of why they get jobs (confirmed with research), and I wanted to gage how many students out of a collection identified with each reason. The results of that survey can be seen to the right.
Below you can see a full infographic based on my survey results. Everything is here. It serves as my English project this time around.
Surveying an entire school, or anywhere close, is not an easy job for a student. My first thought was to conduct a tangible survey during our lunches, similarly to the various stands our schools club set up during lunches to serve various purposes. The problem with that plan is not many students actually visit those stands, and I needed to survey as many students as possible. My second option was a digital survey.. This worked out extremely well, and received a decent amount of responses. I'm proud of the results as well.
Each project has a thinking skill we must incorporate and excel at. This time around, it was synthesis. Synthesis refers to gathering information and piecing it together to reach a new conclusion. This left me stumped on my art project for a while. Initially, I was going to produce a video essay showcasing an interview I conducted, but the idea fell flat (more on that in a bit). What was I to do? I didn't have a new idea and coming up with one that would hit all the beats was proving to be a difficult task for me. Then, one of the teachers proposed an an artistic version of the infographic I had already made. He showed a few examples, and I got to work. The result is below.
This project has a second sanction detached from the infographic based work. I collected research straight from a mall store manager for my social studies project. The information delves into the economic side of student employees for some extra tidbits of information about this demographic in the work force. As previously mentioned, I wanted to conduct an interview, but this idea never came into fruition due to scheduling issues. I had to improvise something, and in the end all I could do was hand in a sheet with all the questions I needed answered. The managers' response is below, answers in red.
in conclusion...
A large amount of student employees isn’t so much of a bad thing. There are a few benefits to having them around: they’re cheaper, they typically have more flexible schedules than other employees and their desire to work is typically greater than other employees as well. The main drawback is their initial eagerness can be expected to ebb away. They might need to be motivated at times. The positives outweigh the negatives here.
Most students do apply for jobs solely to earn spending money. However, there are students out there who want to contribute to the community (albeit a small amount), or apply to help themselves in different ways such as gaining experience. It isn’t all monetary.
Whether they realize it or not, working their very own job benefits every student. It teaches them true responsibility, and on the petty side of things, it gives them something to brag about.
Most students do apply for jobs solely to earn spending money. However, there are students out there who want to contribute to the community (albeit a small amount), or apply to help themselves in different ways such as gaining experience. It isn’t all monetary.
Whether they realize it or not, working their very own job benefits every student. It teaches them true responsibility, and on the petty side of things, it gives them something to brag about.