This project gives you the opportunity to employ your skills in statistical analysis to address a question that you find interesting.  You will collect the data, perform the statistical analysis, and present your conclusions to the class.  You will work with two partners; you should contribute equally to the project, and will receive the same grade.

The project will consist of 5 steps:

    1. Submit a question you plan to address (due second Monday). This should be brief - two or three sentences.  Examples of questions you might ask are:

          Do CC students share the same political beliefs as their parents?

How does tree trunk diameter vary with distance from running water?

Are people who smoke more or less likely to buy organic produce than people who don't smoke?

Do student-athletes have better hand-eye coordination that non-athletes?

Can the record of a professional sports team be predicted from its payroll? 

    2. Submit a more detailed proposal, with a specific hypothesis and an explanation of how you plan to collect the data (due second Friday).  This should be no more than a page long, but clearly outline the scientific content and feasibility of the project.  If you will be conducting a survey, you must include the exact wording of the survey questions. You must include enough details about your data collection methodology that someone could use them as instructions for replicating your work.

    3.  Submit the raw data you collected (due third Friday).  Turn this in to me electronically, by emailing a spreadsheet (e.g. from Minitab).

    4.  Present your findings in class on the last day of the block, using a PowerPoint (or similar) slideshow.   State your hypothesis, give descriptive statistics and useful charts for your data, describe the statistical inference you employed (i.e. give confidence intervals or P-values), and explain your conclusions.  Feel free to use your creativity to make your presentation eye-catching if you like.  However, the most important thing is that the viewer should easily be able to determine the questions you asked, the methods you used, and the conclusions you drew.   These main points should jump out at the viewer - use large font!

  5.  Turn in a paper on the last day of the block, co-authored by all the members of your group.  It will cover the same topics as your presentation, but in more detail.  The paper should be a stand-alone document; do not assume the reader saw your presentation.   It should include the following sections:
     I. Introduction
           A brief (<1 page) description of the general questions you are interested in.  Give a preview of your most important one or two results ("We will show that...")
    II. Methods
         Describe in detail how your data were collected.  If you conducted a survey, include the actual survey as an appendix.  You must give enough detail that a skeptical reader could reproduce your methods exactly.
    III. Results
          Summarize your data numerically and graphically.  Include enough figures to illustrate the main points, but no more than that.
          Carry out statistical inference (hypothesis testing and/or confidence intervals).  This is the most important part of the paper.  Clearly state your hypotheses, test statistics, p-values, and practical conclusions.  Be sure to use notation and terminology correctly.  Explain why the assumptions of your statistical methods are satisfied by your data.
    IV. Discussion
          Summarize in non-technical terms your major findings.
          Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of your study.  If you failed to find significant relationships, do you think it is because they don't exist or because you lacked statistical power?  Were there other flaws in your methodology? 

Overall paper guidelines: Write using the active voice ("We found that..." instead of "It was found...").  Your writing should be succinct and precise, not wordy.  Get to the point as efficiently as possible.  Write in the style of a professional scientific article - do not discuss your personal feelings about the topic, describe how you got stuck at a certain stage of the process, etc.