BU Particular Population Essay

Description: For this project, you will collect and compare quantitative data
from two populations. You will use statistical methods to determine if there a difference
between the means of the two populations.

You will present your results and conclusions for this first part of project in an essay format that
is at least 1000 words (3 pages, double spaced) in length. Do NOT include definitions or state
how to calculate anything in your project. State your findings and conclusions in your own
words.
Discussion of Topic (Total: 6pts)
• Clearly describe the quantitative variable and two populations studied: What is your
project about? What are you studying, and what populations did you select?

• Discuss why the selected topic was chosen: What piqued your interest about this topic. Is
it related to your major in some way, or just something you thought was interesting?
Discuss any preconceived notions of how the project might turn out.

• Discuss expectations: What do you think will be the outcome of this experiment?

Discussion of Data Collection (Total: 4pts)
• Clearly describe how data was collected: Who did you ask? How did you decide who to
ask? How did you record data?

• Decide if the collection method meets the requirements of a random sample: You likely
did not meet the requirements of a true random sample. How did your sample either meet
the requirements or not meet the requirements of a random sample?

• Discuss how to correct sampling issues: Generally the reason that students don’t have
random samples is due to a lack of resources. You don’t have the time or ability to truly
randomly choose 50 subjects from each population. What are some ways that you could
get a true random sample?
Discussion of Histograms (Total 6pts)
• Discuss the shape of both distributions based on the histograms: Is the distribution right
skewed, left skewed, or symmetric? How can you tell? Is the distribution multimodal,
bimodal, or unimodal. How can you tell?

• Determine visually if there are any outliers present in the histograms and explain how
outliers in a histogram are identified:. According to your histogram, are there any outliers
in the distribution? In a histogram, how do you identify outliers? Do not use the formula
for outliers, and do not look at your boxplots

Discussion of Outliers in Boxplot (Total 4pts)

• Correctly and clearly discuss any outliers present in the boxplots and explain how outliers
in a boxplot are identified: This answer may not match your answer to the question
regarding outliers in your histogram, and that is fine. Do not go back and change your
answer.
Discussion of Visual Sample Comparison (Total 8pts)
• Correctly and clearly discuss if the centers of the two samples are different from each
other using the histograms only: Do not use your boxplots or summary statistics for this
part. Using your histograms alone, make a rough estimate about where the “center” for
each distribution is. Then compare them. Are they basically the same or is one
significantly bigger than the other?

• Correctly and clearly discuss if the centers of the two samples are different from each
other using the boxplots only: For each graph, what are the “centers” that represent the
typical values of your data? Are they basically the same or is one of them significantly
bigger than the other?

Discussion of Measures of Center and Spread (Total 4pts):
• Describe the two samples using the two measures of center: Talk about what methods
you used to identify the “center” of your histograms and box plots. Did you identify the
mean or median when reporting on measure of center for your histograms? What about
for your boxplots? Compare the mean and median for each sample.
• Describe the two samples using the two measures of spread: Compare standard deviation
and IQR for each sample
Discussion of Appropriate Measures to Use (Total 4pts)
• Determine which measure of center and spread would be appropriate to use when
comparing the two samples based on the shapes of the distributions: Use what you know
about symmetry vs skewness to decide which is better for your data sets: The mean and
the standard deviation, OR the median and the IQR. Decide for each data set individually.
However, if one of your data sets uses median and IQR, but the other uses mean and
standard deviation, you will move forward with your comparison using the median and
IQR for BOTH DATA SETS. If this is the case, please state this in your paper.
• Correctly support reasoning for the decision: Why did you choose what you chose for
each data set? Comment on the shapes of data and which measures of center and spread
are appropriate.
Discussion of Samples Using Chosen Center and Spread Measurement (Total 6pts)

• Compare the samples using the chosen measure of center and spread: First, think aboutthe measure of center you chose for comparison. Which group has a higher measure of center? Now, think about the measure of spread that you chose to compare. Which group has a greater measure of spread?

• Discuss what the results suggest about the two overlying populations: What do your
results in the previous question imply about the two overlying populations?
Discussion of Expectations and Limitations (Total 4pts)
• Clearly discuss if the analysis of the samples matched initial expectations: What did you
think the results would be in the beginning, before collecting your data? Were you right
or wrong? What are your main conclusions based on the initial data analysis?