From morning Celsius to afternoon caramel lattes, beverages play a surprisingly big role in our daily routine. Two surveys were conducted–one for the teachers and one for Upper School students–and the data were collected by grade and department. Responders were asked, “What is your favorite drink type?”  The options for drink choices were coffee, tea, energy drinks, water, juice, soda, smoothies, or no preference.

Going into the survey, I predicted that teachers would choose coffee at much higher rates than students, and that energy drinks would make up a substantial portion of the student responses.

But the data showed otherwise:

Water was put in the survey under the assumption that very few people would select that as their favorite, and yet the data disproved that. Students had water as their favorite drink, with 28% of them preferring water over anything else. Teachers also had water as their second preference (under coffee). 

The survey results surprised me, so I decided to look deeper into the changes between grades and faculty departments.

For every grade but the freshmen, water was the preference, but smoothies were first for the class of 26. Tea, coffee, and soda were also fan favorites. Surprisingly enough, energy drinks were highest for the freshmen. Seniors, however, had the highest percentage of coffee.

According to the faculty data, essays and coffee have a common connection. The English department has the highest percentage of coffee drinks, with 71.4%, the highest percentage of any drink chosen in any of the demographics. 

“Coffee is the fuel that keeps me alert enough to spot every comma splice and dropped quotation in my students’ writing. It’s my secret weapon for grading,” Dr. Parsons in the English Department said. 

The Science department’s chart was also surprising because 25% of the department voted for energy drinks, the highest preference of any class grade or department.

Overall, what this survey experience showed me was two things: someone needs to take Celsius away from the freshmen and science department, and expecting results often means the data shows up completely differently from what may at first be expected!