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by anonymous, Senior Education Associate, Paleontological Research Institution,

A very interesting survey. The fact that I found myself wanting to see any preliminary data from the survey certainly indicated that I thought it was valid, important to the field, thoughtfully constructed, and unbiased in its instructions and questions. Students' perceptions and opinions of physics as a career, physics as a science, and of the courses offered to them is data that would be very helpful to both the formal and informal education and outreach fields, as well as to physics researchers/prof's that are concerned with promoting the field as a possible career choice. I particularly like the fact that there are several questions about the nature/process of science, the data from which could be widely applicable. I felt the instructions were clear, and provided sufficient basis to answer the questions, and gave impetus and reason for the survey. The breadth of the questions was wide, and the structure for possible answers was brilliant. I did have a bit of trouble finding the survey, but eventually found it at: http://modeling.asu.edu/R%26E/IHalloun/VASS-P204_June04.pdf. There are a number of grammatical errors that may make understanding of the question or answer somewhat ambiguous ("in" missing on answer "B", #'s 32 and 33; there is "to" missing in a few sentences, etc.), but overall the grammar seems clear. I would very much like to see some demographic data included. Knowing the gender of the respondents would be very helpful to better understand women's perspectives on science/physics. To be sure, including data collection of gender, age range, and college level (what year they are in, undergrad/grad, etc.) would allow a much wider use of the data. With this addition, and perhaps a bit of careful editing for grammar, I would certainly strongly recommend the survey.