How to create a Survey in Fathom:

Note:  the teacher must have a user name and password to access the Fathom website in order to upload the survey to this website.


Begin by opening Fathom2.

Click Object, New, Collection.  A Collection Icon should appear on your screen.  You can rename this collection by double-clicking on the name Collection 1.

Now Click the Collection menu and choose Create Survey...

Click the survey tab.

Click on top of <new> under the Attribute column heading.  Type in the label for the first survey question.  This is not your question.

Press tab, and type in the first survey question in the second column, the Question column.

Click on top of <new> in the second row under the Attribute column heading.  Type the label for the second survey question.

Press tab and type in the second survey question in the Question column.

Repeat this process until all attributes and questions have been entered.

Now if you would like for any of your questions to have a drop down menu with choices for an answer, such as male and female for gender, click the categories tab.

Click <new> under Set in the first column and type in the label you would like to appear.

Click tab and type in the different options you would like to appear in the categories column, separating each with a comma.  The survey defaults to have the first option as the answer if no answer is chosen.  For this reason it is quite helpful to make your first choice no answer.  For example for gender, you would type no answer,female,male in the categories column.

To create another selection menu, click <new> under Set in the first column and type in the label you would like to appear.  Then press tab, typing in the different options.

Repeat this process until all menus have been created.

Now click the cases tab.

Highlight the row of the question you would like to have a drop down option menu by clicking on the label in the attribute column.  Now that the row is highlighted, click show details at the bottom right hand corner. 

Click the drop down menu next to set and choose the appropriate label.

Repeat this process for each category requiring a drop down menu.

If you would like a measurement value to automatically appear in the results, such as inches when measuring height, click on the label for the question.

In the units box type in the type of units you would like Fathom2 to use.  For example, if you were asking for a persons age, you would type years in the units box.

Repeat this process until all units have been input.

Now that the survey is complete, click the survey tab.  Type your username in the username box at the bottom right hand corner.  Click the Upload Survey button in the bottom left hand corner.  Fathom will ask for your password.  Enter your password and click OK.

Your survey has been uploaded to the Fathom2 survey website.

If you wish to post this survey on your personal webpage, go to the Fathom2 survey webpage.  Log in using your username and password.  Click the surveys link.  Click the Template link.  The webpage you are brought to should have the template information highlighted.  Go to Edit, Copy.

Open your webpage in a webpage editor.  Go to the html source view of your webpage.  Paste the template information into the html source view of your webpage in the location in which you want the survey to appear in your webpage.

The survey can also be done on a seperate page that is linked from your homepage.

The survey is now complete.


Return to the Day 1 lesson

Return to unit homepage