ECON 235: Applied Statistics

ECON 235: Applied Statistics

Paper

 

Description

 

• Brief report (minimum 2 pages)
• 50 points
• Use the data on Canvas under files/survey
• Upload your report to Canvas by Monday, April 23^rd

 

Problem

 

In this project you will produce a statistical analysis of our unique class data on SVSU students.  You choose which variables that you want to study.  It would be interesting to focus on one group of variables (for example, “recreation”) but you can choose variables from separate categories if you want.

 

The paper should be structured in 5 parts.  The first part is an introduction.  Here you want to describe the purpose of the paper and what kind of data you will be using.  In describing the data, briefly discuss how the questions were designed and how the surveys were collected.  Mention possible shortcomings of this survey.

 

In the second part, statistically describe the data.  Choose at least 3 variables, and make sure you have at least one numerical and two categorical variables.  For two categorical variables, show a contingency table.  For the numerical variable, give summary statistics, including mean, median, mode, variance, and standard deviation (show these in a table).

 

In the third part, visualize the data.  Show a bar chart or a pareto chart for one categorical variable and a histogram for a numerical variable.  I recommend doing these in Excel, using the first Excel lab as a guide.

 

In the fourth part, formulate and test a hypothesis about a variable.  The best type of hypothesis will have some sort of research involved- i.e., can you find any info online about the age of SVSU students that you could test using our data?  How about the percent of students who are married?  Number of classes they are taking?  State the null and alternative hypothesis, calculate the test statistic, compare it to a critical value, and state your conclusion.

 

In the fifth part, write a brief conclusion about your analysis.  What did you learn?  What were the difficulties you faced?  How would you improve this study in the future?

 

Grading:

 

There is a total of 50 points possible for this project.  To provide consistency in grading, I provide a standardized rubric which can be found on the reverse side of this paper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Content Area:	No Effort	Below Expectations	Meets Expectation	Exceeds Expectations
1.  Introduction	0 [Student did not provide an introduction]	5 [Student wrote introduction, but contains multiple grammatical and spelling errors, and was unclear.]	7.5 [Student wrote an introduction but is either unclear or makes several spelling or grammar mistakes.	10 [Student provided a clear introduction with few if any spelling or grammatical errors]
2.  Descriptive Statistics	0 [Student did not provide descriptive statistics]	5 [Student provided either a contingency table or a table of summary statistics.  May have some errors.]	7.5 [Student provided a contingency table and a table of summary statistics.  May have some errors.	10 [Student provided an accurate contingency table and table of summary statistics.]
3.  Visualization	0 [Student did not provide any charts.]	5 [Student provided a bar chart, pareto chart, or histogram.  Charts may be unclear or incorrect.]	7.5 [Student provided a bar chart or pareto chart, plus a histogram.  May have some errors.	10 [Student provided a clear, visually interesting bar chart or pareto chart plus a histogram.
4.  Hypothesis Test	0 [Student did not provide a hypothesis test.]	5 [Student stated the null and alternative hypothesis but did not compute test statistics, did not provide test statistic/critical values, or did not write a conclusion]	7.5 [Student stated a null and alternative hypothesis, provided a test statistic and critical value, and stated aconclusion.  May have some errors.]	10 [Student stated a correct null and alternative hypothesis, provided a test statistic and critical value, and came to the correct conclusion. ]
5.  Conclusion	0 [Student did not provide a conclusion]	5 [Student provided a conclusion, but it was unclear and had spelling and grammatical errors.]	7.5 [Student provided a clear conclusion, but with spelling or grammatical error.]	10 [Student provided a clear conclusion with few if any spelling or grammatical errors]