Goal: Collect data and conduct a full statistical test of a hypothesis about the population mean.
Data: Obtain data on a topic of your interest either by looking it up or by conducting a survey.
Your variable of interest should be quantitative (numeric). It should be something for which
knowing the mean is relevant and makes sense. Some examples include:
Cost of tuition from a list of colleges online
Hours of sleep per night from asking some of your friends
Calories per serving in an assortment of foods in a grocery store
Your sample size should be greater than 30.
Procedure:
Collect Data: Obtain data as described above.
Data Context: Briefly explain the variable of interest in your sample, how the sample was
chosen, and if you think the sample is representative of the population.
Hypothesize: Choose a level of confidence (α). Also, create null and alternative
hypotheses using an intelligent guess or meaningful value for the null hypothesis.
Descriptive Statistics: Provide the sample mean, sample standard deviation, and a graph
of the data distribution (like a histogram or boxplot).
Statistical Test: With α from above, compute the test statistic and p-value, reject or fail to
reject your null hypothesis, and write a conclusion in the context of your data.
Details: The project is due at the beginning of class on Thursday, November 6 (no extensions).
About half of your time on this project may be spent obtaining the data, but if you are having
difficulty with the data collection step, see me. The project should be formatted, organized, and
free of spelling and grammar mistakes.
