Statistics Final Project: MAT143 - Statistics & Society

You will look for two variables of interest and will be estimating a population mean and proportion.

TASK: Develop your own questionnaire/survey to collect data on a two variables of interest. One variable of interest should be used to estimate a population mean (quantitative) and the other should be used to estimate a proportion (qualitative). (For example, you may ask students how many hours they study per week or if they are a Democrat, Republican ....). The two variables you choose do not need to be related to one another.

Your written project will need to contain a written introduction, written summary of the data project as described below, and a written conclusion. You may not use same topics as anyone else in the class. YOU MUST HAVE A MINIMUM OF 50 DATA VALUES FOR EACH SURVEY - you may ask the same 50 people both your survey questions.

*See the rubric on the back for detailed and clear scoring instructions.

Introduction: Your first paragraph should introduce the readers to your project and the variables of interest.

What is the purpose of your study/what are you wanting to find out?

Why did you choose this topic?

Define the population to which your sample would be applied to. (i.e. college students, american adults, etc.)

Explain how your sample was selected and what limitations there are to the method you used for generalizing your sample to the population.

Topic 1:

Population mean - For one of the variables of interest (Quantitative):

Present the data you used (I want to see the original data)

Use appropriate displays (graphs) of the data. (box plot and histogram for quantitative)

Describe the data in terms of descriptive measures:

1. Centers(1)____

2. Shape (1)____

3. Variability

(1)____... in the CONTEXT of the problem.

Construct a 95% confidence interval for a population mean. (use technology) Explain what the answer (confidence interval) means in the context of the problem.

Topic 2: Population proportion - For your second variable of interest (qualitative):

Present the data you used (I want to see the original data)

Use appropriate displays (graphs) of the data. (bar graph and pie chart)

Describe the data in appropriate terms of descriptive measures - mean and standard deviation (standard error) of the proportion

[you will need to choose one answer to be the point of reference. For example, if you are going to survey on political parties then you could choose to find the mean and standard deviation of the proportion of the population that are republicans]

There is a formula to doing this on pg. 352 of your text ... in the CONTEXT of the problem.

Construct a 99% confidence interval for a population proportion. (use technology)

Explain what the answer (confidence interval) means in the context of the problem

Conclusion: Discuss the what you learned from you study and anything interesting worth noting. Sum up your consclusions.