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This project analyzed data from two surveys that I completed in Spring 2021 and Spring 2022 concerning the water bottle filling stations on St. Lawrence University campus. Our goal was to determine students' perception of the filling stations through various questions concerning their role in preventing single-use plastic bottles, as well as the filling stations' cleanliness, maintenance, and water quality.
These surveys were completed, under the guidance of Dr. Karin Heckman, over the course two semesters which had differing COVID-19 masking and social distancing regulations. Both surveys were administered through Qualtrics and open for one week to all SLU students who were 18 years or older. Flyers were posted across campus along with posts made to Facebook and Instagram. After completing the survey, participants then had the option to partake in a drawing for one of three gift Amazon gift cards. Participants' response were analyzed and presented in aggregated (not individually) using the programming language "R."
I was able to complete a more in-depth analysis of the data during the SLU Summer Fellowship in 2022. Working with Dr. Matt Higham, we created visualizations for each of the questions as well as a map of the filling stations on our campus. We determined that in 2021, when asked for any additional thoughts on the filling stations, the three most used words were: "more", "filter", and "change." In 2022, the most used words were: "more", "convenience", and "filter." During both years, respondents agreed to some extent that the filling stations were clean. We found that for both years, the most used filling station on campus was the Student Center's first floor station.