Praxis Course: DSCI 310: Data in Action
Semester: Spring 2026
Faculty Advisor/Professor: Jennifer Spohrer
Community Partner: Philadelphia Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development’s (PHENND) Climate Resilience Youth Council (CRYC)
Praxis Site Supervisor: Lane Frazee
Praxis Poster:
DSCI 310 CRYC
Further Context:
This semester, our team partnered with the Climate Resilience Youth Council (CRYC) supported by the Philadelphia Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development (PHENND). CRYC is made up of 18 high school-aged youth from diverse communities and school types across Philadelphia. The program is focused on developing student’s climate change literacy and civic engagement. Another core piece of the curriculum is designing and supporting a climate resilience project focused within a student’s neighborhood.
This program has been running for several years however, until this point there has been no way to track and gather student feedback. Our partner wanted to develop a survey to understand student experiences within the program and implement feedback into future iterations of the program. Additionally, student feedback can help show the impact and reach of the program, ultimately helping CRYC obtain funding or grants.
We initially aimed for a mixed method approach in which we would design a survey to be given to the current cohort of CRYC students and combine this with a focus group to gain a nuanced understanding of students’ experiences. With the information gained from the survey and the contextualization from the focus group, we could revise the survey into a pre and post program assessment. Finally, we would provide CRYC with a plan for analyzing the results from these surveys so they could adjust the program as needed to future cohorts.
We focused on using Google forms to create a primarily likert scale survey for current students. With our partner we were able to isolate four categories that were most essential to understanding student’s experiences and takeaways. These categories were climate change literacy, civic engagement literacy, program experience, and leadership development. We chose to leave this survey completely anonymous to allow for respondents to feel comfortable giving positive and negative feedback.
We wanted to design a likert scale survey to present the current cohort of students with a way to express their growth in skills and knowledge that we were able to analyze clearly. We then included open ended questions to understand the reasons behind some of the trends found in the likert scale answers. Unfortunately, we were unable to conduct the focus group due to
funding constraints, so we ultimately incorporated some of the more vital questions into the survey that we plan to use for the beginning and end of the next cohort term.
This partnership experience emphasized for us the importance of clear communication and adaptability. Our collaboration and understanding of the needs of CRYC grew throughout the semester, and we feel confident that the surveys and resources we provide for them will sustain their data needs throughout future cohorts.