BUS315 Final Research Project

AL 169 / BUS 315 (Business Statistics) – Final Research Project

BUS 315 - Unit 8 – Final Project

AL169 - Unit 6 – Final Project

The Final Project is considered the final exam in this course. Within this project you must demonstrate at least five different aspects of a statistical study. The project should be not less than five pages in length. You will find the project easier to complete if you choose numerical data (Interval or Ratio scale). You are free and encouraged to design your own project. However, a couple of project ideas are found below. In any event, the instructor must approve the topic of your research before you begin, and your research idea will be graded as part of your final grade in this course.

1. Choose a project of interest to you (ideas for projects are found below), or pose a question that you can answer with data (Your project must be approved by the Instructor).
2. Explain how you will select the data or design the experiment to gather the data. Give a rationale for your choices.
3. List the data values you obtain and choose an appropriate graphical display for the data. The descriptive methods are to relate to the hypothesis that you are testing.
4. Use a hypothesis testing procedure to analyze the data. Give supporting reasons for the choice of the procedure used. Summarize your conclusion in terms of the question that you posed. Include the p-value or critical value of the test, and interpret it.
5. The final section should summarize what you have done in the form of a letter to a friend, using language that she or he will understand.

Final Project Ideas:

The list below is only being provided to get your creative juices flowing! In no way are you encouraged to choose one of these projects. Choose a project of interest to you with a clearly defined hypothesis, and provide an outline of this project and the methodology for testing your stated hypothesis to your instructor for approval. Your final project outline will be graded and will form part of your final grade. The Instructor must approve your project. Each student must submit and work on their own project.

1. After watching an infomercial on a new and improved fishing rod, I bought it to determine if I would catch more fish than my old fishing rod.
2. Three-fourths of University of Texas students surveyed stated that their high school did give them sufficient preparation for college.
3. The top four qualities teenage respondents want in a person of the opposite gender are fun, friendly, have a good sense of humor, and have a good body.
4. Height does not appear to have an effect on the accuracy of free throw shots by basketball players. If anything, shorter players tend to be slightly more accurate.
5. Conduct a taste test of either Coke versus Pepsi or Diet Coke versus Diet Pepsi. Survey at least 50 randomly selected students who identify themselves beforehand as cola drinkers with a definite preference for one of the brands you are testing. Give each subject a cup of each cola that has been coded in a way known only to you. Calculate the fraction of your sample whose choice in the taste test matches the brand identified beforehand as their favorite. (Do not tell your subjects that this is a test of their ability to identify their favorite brand; tell them it is a test of which tastes better.) Determine the two-sided p-value for a test of the null hypothesis that there is a 0.5 probability that a cola drinker will choose his or her favorite brand.
6. Find five avid basketball players and ask each of them to shoot 100 free throws. Do not tell them the purpose of this exercise, which is to determine if a missed free throw is equally likely to bounce to the same or opposite side as their shooting hand. Use your data for each of these players to calculate the two-sided p-value for testing the null hypothesis that a missed free throw by this player is equally likely to bounce to either side.
7. Ask 50 female students these four questions: Among female students at this college, is your height above average or below average? Is your weight above average or below average? Is your intelligence above average or below average? Is your physical attractiveness above average or below average? Ask 50 male students these same questions (in comparison to male students at this college). Try to design a survey procedure that will ensure candid answers. For each gender and each question, test the null hypothesis that p = 0.5.
8. Calculate the percentage change in the Dow Jones Industrial Average from the close on Thursday the 12th to the close on Friday the 13th for every Friday the 13th beginning in 1980. Is the average percentage change substantial? Determine the two-sided p value for a test of the null hypothesis that the mean percentage change is 0.
9. The nine positions on a baseball team can be divided into four categories: pitcher, catcher, the four infielders, and the three outfielders. Collect all the data you can on major league baseball managers and test the null hypothesis that, among those managers who played baseball, the probabilities of having played in these four categories are 1/9, 1/9, 4/9, and 3/9, respectively.
10. College students are said to experience the Frosh 15 -- an average weight gain of 15 pounds during their first year at college. Test this folklore by asking at least 100 randomly selected students how much weight they gained or lost during their first year at college. Determine the two-sided p-value for testing the null hypothesis that the population mean is a 15-pound gain, and also determine a 95 percent confidence interval for the population mean.

Elements of a Good Final Project Submission

(Note: You will need to gather data that is numeric in order to best accomplish this project - interval or ratio scale)

1. State the Hypothesis that you will be testing
2. Provide the raw data that you gathered for your project (Tabular form)
3. Using the information in Chapter 2, provide the appropriate Tabular and/or Graphical displays for your data. Is the data skewed to the left or right?
4. Using the information learned in Chapter 3, provide the Mean, Median, Mode(s) and comment on what these data signify. What type of data have you collected (Nominal, Ordinal, Interval or Ratio)? What is the variance, standard deviation, five-number summary, boxplot, etc.?
5. Based on the data that you collected, how will be assigning probabilities (Binomial, Standard Normal, etc.? Show your work in detail. This can be done as an Appendix, or directly in the report. In the event that you used your calculator to determine a probability, then state the actual equation that you followed (e.g. Binomcdf (10, 0.5, 2) = 0.05469)
6. Using Chapter 8, calculate the 95% Confidence Interval (Interval Estimation) for your data. Show your work in detail, and state the logic behind your choice (e.g. since the Population Standard Deviation for this sample was not known, I have calculated the Margin of Error using a t-score. Then show the equation that was used).
7. Finally, re-state your hypothesis, and then complete the Hypothesis Test using your data. Your hypothesis test should contain the following:
1. List the null and alternate hypotheses
2. Calculate the test statistic. You may also find it easier to graphically display the information that you have found using a normal distribution representation.
3. Calculate the probability using either the p-value approach or the critical value approach (Show your work)
4. Based on your findings, do you reject, or fail to reject, the null hypothesis. Therefore, what has your data shown about your original hypothesis. Describe it in words.
8. Summarize your work as a letter to a friend in language that they will be able to understand.