Description of Project, Report Guidelines, and Requirements:

This project is a culmination of the statistics you have learned this semester.  The purpose of this project is for you to test a hypothesis using data that you collected.  You should submit a report describing your activities. Your final report should contain the exact sections described below and submitted on Google documents.  Then share it with me. The point values that will be assigned to the sections are listed to the right of the section title. 

1.  Problem Statement (1 pt.):  In the problem statement, you should introduce the data you will be describing and the random variable that you are investigating.  The problem statement must include the null and alternate hypothesis that you will be testing.  State why you chose this hypothesis. Was it interesting to you or does it have meaning to you?

2.  Data (1 pt.):  The data description should contain the information about your data to allow us to understand the data.  This section should contain, the statement of the random variable, a description of the source of your data and the data collection procedures, the descriptive statistics, and some assertion about the model that is consistent with the data. You must submit your entire dataset.

3.  Data Description & Descriptive Statistics (2 pt.): The data description should contain the information about your data to allow us to understand the data.  This section should contain, the statement of the random variable, a description of the source of your data and the data collection procedures, the descriptive statistics, and some assertion about the model that is consistent with the data. Your descriptive statistics must include measures of central tendency such as mean, median, and mode.  The measures of variability, such as standard deviation and variance should be included in your descriptive statistics.

Hints on Choosing a dataset

(a) Internet Sources such as the following:  

· The Data And Story Library (DASL) at dasl.datadescription.com

· Census at https://data.census.gov/

· Database: http://people.stern.nyu.edu/schatter/datalink.html

· New Jersey Open Data Center: https://data.nj.gov/

· CDC at https://cdc.gov

(b) Data Collection (spend 1 hour collecting): You can collect data. For example, according to the NJ Census, 40% of the New Jersey residents have a Bachelor of Science degree or higher.  So, if you were interested in the proportion of people who have a Bachelor of Science degree or higher in Bergen County, you could randomly choose a public place, like a restaurant in Bergen County and ask each person if they have a Bachelor of Science degree or higher. You could obtain 30 data points during a one-hour lunch. 

4.  Hypothesis Testing Procedure (3 points): In this section, you will use your steps in your notes and should present the details concerning how you will test your hypothesis.  You should describe the logic behind your null and alternative hypotheses — where did they come from, why are they interesting.  You should describe the test statistic you will use (i.e., z or t) and why?  For example, if you are testing a hypothesis about a mean, you have what appears to be normal data, and you have a small n, then you would use a T-test and you do not have the population standard deviation.  When explaining your choice of test statistic, you need to discuss whether you have satisfied the assumptions necessary for using the specific statistic.  For example, does your data have to be normal and does it satisfy the requirements, which are in your notes?  You should also determine level of confidence and the level of significance (i.e., 0.01, 0.05).

5.  Hypothesis Testing Results (2 points):  Using your notes, start with the results of your test.  State the value of the test statistics and the result of the accept/reject decision.  You should probably identify the p value of the test.  If appropriate, you should state what the point estimate is for the parameter and construct a confidence interval around the parameter.

6.  Summary and Conclusions (2 points): In this section, you should summarize the process of the project and then provide the concluding statement concerning the hypothesis and the results of the testing.

7.  Reflection Statements (1 point): This section should contain brief reflections (2-3 paragraphs) on what was learned from the hypothesis testing project.

Identifying the Hypotheses: You can generate several different types of hypotheses, based on the material that is covered in your textbook.  Below are some ideas:

· the mean of the population (For example, the mean height of a 15 year old boy is the same as the 50% percentile height given in the CDC data (https://cdc.gov)).

· the difference between the means of two populations (For example, the mean salaries of women is less than men)

· a population proportion (For example, the proportion of NCAA sweet sixteen games attended by more than 45000 is greater than 50%).

· the difference between two population proportions (For example, the percent of Nike sneakers produced in 1989 is equal to the percent of Nike sneakers produced in 2021)

· the standard deviation of a population (Fro example, the standard deviation of resting heart rates for students at St. Peters University is different 12 bpm.)

· the ratio of variances of two populations ( the standard deviation of 300 eighteen year old male shoe size is greater than the standard deviation of 300 eighteen year old female shoe size).  

Tools: For this project, you should be using Sheets and a calculator.  

Google Doc Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ERmHAfTK1N5Nv1… 

Notes: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1cJ80ydiKaA793_DfymvyZtEjXHR3Kg43zbVvWvwHXls/copy?usp=sharing