Descriptive Statistics

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StatisticsResearchProjectInstructions13.docx

Statistics Research Project Instructions

MATH 201/BUS 230

On April 4, 2017, Jordan Friedman wrote an article for US News and World Report. He provided the following data about the “average” online learner (retrieved from https://www.usnews.com/higher-education/online-education/articles/2017-04-04/us-news-data-the-average-online-bachelors-student):

You will investigate two of these claims over the course of this term, using your class as a sample. Each week different elements of the project will be submitted and graded by your instructor. Based on your calculations and the feedback from your instructor, you will submit a final write up in week 7 of all your findings.

Points and Due Dates (submissions are due at 11:59pm ET Monday at the end of the indicated week):

Project Part

Due Date

Points

Part 1 – Data Collection (Week 1)

Week 1

10

Part 2 – Descriptive Statistics (Week 3)

Week 3

25

Part 3 – Confidence Intervals (Week 5)

Week 5

25

Part 4 – Hypothesis Testing (Week 6)

Week 6

25

Part 5 – Final Report (Week 7)

Week 7

75

A note on ethics of research in our class: As in any research study, it is important to protect the confidentiality of those who respond to a survey. For this reason, no names of survey respondents will be used, no data will be made public, and no findings will be published outside of our classroom. As this is a student class project where the student investigator gathers or analyzes information in a systematic manner primarily for the learning experience, it is not intended to contribute to generalizable knowledge and is not to be presented outside the class in which the research is being done nor published/disseminated (including publication on the Internet) in any way, nor presented, nor archived, nor compiled with similar research for later publishing or presentation.

(10 points) Part 1 – Data Collection (Week 1): This week you will submit an assignment in the week 1 folder. You will answer the following questions:

1. What was your age (in years) on the first day of our course?

2. What is your gender?

In addition, you will match the following terms from the study:

· Population

· Parameters

· Sample

· Statistics

Your instructor will compile the answers for the entire class and will send out an Excel sheet with all the data during week 2 so you can use the file in parts 2-5 of the project.

(25 points) Part 2 – Descriptive Statistics (Week 3): This week you will calculate descriptive statistics for the first question, age. Your instructor will send you the “data sheet” with all the class data at the end of Week 2. This sheet will also provide space for you to do the following descriptive statistics under the “week 3” tab:

You will submit the Excel sheet with the following information:

· Make a Frequency Distribution with 5 classes, also list the midpoints, relative frequency, and cumulative frequency

· Make a relative frequency ogive

· Make a frequency polygon

· Calculate the mean

· Calculate the median

· Calculate the standard deviation

· Calculate the Q1 and Q3 values

(25 points) Part 3 – Confidence Intervals (Week 5): Based on the class sample, you will create a 95% confidence interval for the mean age and the proportion of males in the population of all online college students. Using the same sheet as last week, answer the following in the “week 5” tab:

· For the average age, form a 95% confidence interval:

· What distribution should be used?

· What is the critical value?

· What is the error bound?

· What is the lower bound?

· What is the upper bound?

· For the proportion of males, form a 95% confidence interval:

· What distribution should be used?

· What is the critical value?

· What is the error bound?

· What is the lower bound?

· What is the upper bound?

(25 points) Part 4 – Hypothesis Testing (Week 6): Based on your sample, you will conduct a hypothesis test with to test two of the claims of the above article. Using the same sheet as last week, answer the following in the “week 6” tab:

· Claim: the average age of online students is 32 years old.

· What is the null hypothesis?

· What is the alternative hypothesis?

· What distribution should be used?

· What is the test statistic?

· What is the p-value?

· What is the conclusion?

· Claim: the proportion of males in online classes is 35%

· What is the null hypothesis?

· What is the alternative hypothesis?

· What distribution should be used?

· What is the test statistic?

· What is the p-value?

· What is the conclusion?

(75 points) Part 5 – Final Report (Week 7): You will submit a final report, written in Word (or similar word processing software), based on your findings and submissions from parts 1-4. It is highly suggested you not submit this paper without first reviewing all the feedback from your instructor on submissions from weeks 1-6. Be sure to ask any questions you may have on your feedback.

This final submission should be three paragraphs and summarize your entire project. It will be submitted through SafeAssign, Liberty’s Plagiarism software on BlackBoard. The project must be submitted in paragraph form and not just a list of the calculations from your project. Be sure your paragraphs flow (not just listing the answers to the questions, but complete sentences with transitions) and are written in third person. It should include the following:

· Paragraph 1:

· Brief summary of the article, including the source

· Link for article: https://www.usnews.com/higher-education/online-education/articles/2017-04-04/us-news-data-the-average-online-bachelors-student

· Description of population, sample, and statistic for the study involving our class

· Statement of the claims in the article that were tested in this project

· Null and alternative hypothesis for both tests run for this project (in words)

· Paragraph 2 (address the claim about the mean):

· Summary of sample statistics (mean, median, quartiles)

· Confidence interval, along with interpretation of the confidence interval

· Description of hypothesis test (alpha, test statistic, p-value, conclusion, interpretation)

· Paragraph 3 (address the claim about the proportion):

· Summary of sample statistics (x, n, and p)

· Confidence interval, along with interpretation of the confidence interval

· Description of hypothesis test (alpha, test statistic, p-value, conclusion, interpretation)