For the data analysis project, you will address some questions that interest you with the statistical methodology we are learning in class. You choose the questions; you decide how to collect data; you do the analyses. The questions can address almost any topic, including topics in economics, psychology, sociology, natural science, education, medicine, public policy, sports, law, etc.
The project requires you to synthesize all the materials from the course. Hence, it's one of the best ways to solidify your understanding of statistical methods. Plus, you get answers to issues that pique your intellectual curiosity.
In twenty (20) PowerPoint slides or more, please create a presentation that adequately addresses and answers your statistical question(s). Include your random sampling, calculations, graphs, charts, hypothesis, conclusion, and anything pertinent to your
“statistical question(s).”
The most important aspects of any statistical analysis are stating questions and collecting data. To get the full experience of running your own study, the project requires you to analyze data that you collect. It is not permissible to use data sets that have been put together by others. You are permitted to collect data off of the web; however, you must be the one who decides on the analyses and puts the data set together.
Good projects begin with very clear and well-defined hypotheses. You should think of questions that interest you first, and then worry about how to collect and analyze data to address those questions. Generally, vague topics lead to uninteresting projects. For example, surveying Harvard Undergraduates to see which sex studies more does not yield a whole lot of interesting conclusions. On the other hand, it would be interesting to hypothesize why men or women study more, and then figure out how to collect and analyze data to test your hypotheses.
Practical Advice: It is often easier to collect accurate experimental data than accurate survey data. Non-responses tend to be less of an issue with projects based on experiments than with those based on surveys. I strongly encourage you to consider experiments as opposed to surveys. For those who want to do surveys, consider using students in dorms or certain courses as target populations. Make every effort to get a random sample, and try to keep track of the characteristics of non-respondents. You will have non-responses; however, your project will not be penalized for a non-response as long as you document it and hypothesize how it might affect your results.