STAT100 Assignment 1 Research

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STAT100 Assignment 1 Research Project description
Total: 100 marks
Weight: 10%
Due date: 11:59pm on August 19th 2018
Exploring a research question by collecting your own data set
For this assignment you must collect at least 10 independent observations on two variables
(i.e., a minimum of 20 observations in total) that seeks to explore a difference or a
relationship in the world around you.
When collecting these data, you must be a passive observer only. This means that your data
collection activities cannot interfere or interact with your subjects in any way. Essentially
just consider yourself to be a fly on the wall as you collect your data (see Additional notes
on data collection on Page 3). If you step outside of these ethics guidelines there will be a
minimum of a 20% grade penalty.
You’ll need to use simple random sampling, stratified sampling, cluster sampling, or multistage
sampling to collect your data.
A few examples of possible research questions are listed below however I’m sure you can
imagine many more.
? Is there a difference in the number of birds found on two different tree species on
the UNE campus?
? Is there a difference in the length of the email title for spam e-mails versus nonspam
e-mails that target university students?
? Is there a difference in the variance of summer diurnal temperatures recorded in
Armidale and Sydney?
? Do morning commuters spend more time looking out the windows of the train on
Mondays or Fridays?
? Is there a relationship between the amount of time spent on warm-up exercises and
the proportion of dropped passes in the first 10 minutes of training by the Robb
College rugby team?
? Is the number of new tweets that appear in your twitter feed associated with the
time of day?
? Is there a correlation between days since payday and the number of UNE students
buying lunch at UNE Café Life?
? Is the number of posts on a Moodle forum related to the number of days until an
assignment is due?
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You will need to submit your assignment using the STAT100 Research Project submission
document which is included as a separate file on the Assignment 1 information page on our
STAT100 Moodle site.
Marking criteria
The STAT100 learning objectives addressed in this assignment are: (1) summarise, display,
and interpret data sets, and (2) use of computer software to generate statistics and
graphical representations of data.
Under these learning objectives are the following criteria:
Concepts Criteria
Question in which criteria is included
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Knowledge and
procedures
Understanding of key concepts
and techniques
Problem
solving
Analysis of research problem
Strategy (choice of approach)
Interpretation of results
Communication
Explain process followed
Defining variables
Presentation of results
Clear expression
Software Appropriate use of software
Use the format and structure of the Assignment 1 Research Project submission document
to answer the following questions:
1. [10 marks] A specific research question that you are exploring with the data that you
collected. Remember that you must include the word difference or relationship (or a
synonym for either) as well as an adequate description of your variables and the
population under study.
2. [10 marks] An original image related to your collection of data must be included in
your assignment. The image might be of the setting, equipment used for
measurement, a screen-grab (if you’re collecting data from the internet), or yourself
doing some work etc. In addition, provide a one sentence caption for this image.
Please note that:
? The only person that can appear in your image is you. This restriction is
related to the need for people to provide written consent for image use.
? The image that you use must be your own image and not a picture that
you’ve sourced from elsewhere.
? The maximum file size for your assignment submission to Moodle is 10MB.
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? The image must be inserted within your submission rather than be submitted
as a separate file.
3. [10 marks] A table that neatly presents your raw data. Each variable should be listed
as an individual column.
4. [20 marks] An explanation of what, how and where you collected your data. To do
this you’ll need to identify who the subjects / cases are and where data collection
occurred. You’ll need to provide all necessary details on the location, measurement
units used, definitions of categories, equipment, internet websites accessed, etc.
You will also need to identify the larger population from which your sample came.
Finally, you must provide sufficient detail on how your sampling approach met the
criteria of one of the four sampling schemes discussed in class.
5. [10 marks] A statement identifying both the response and explanatory variables.
6. [10 marks] The data type of each variable (i.e., nominal, ordinal, continuous or
discrete). Provide support for your answers.
7. [15 marks] A professional-looking, coloured, well-labelled graphic (i.e., scatterplot,
boxplot, histogram, bar-chart, or mosaic chart) of your data produced using RStudio.
Also include the following:
? A title directly below the graphic to explain what is being presented (1 – 2
sentences).
? The R code that you used to produce your figure (details on loading,
attaching, and summarizing data are not needed – just the code related to
the figure itself).
8. [10 marks] A brief summary of the general pattern shown in your graphic (Question
7) with reference to your research question of interest (Question 1) (at least 3
sentences).
9. [5 marks] A brief description of one possible confounding variable with an
explanation of why you believe that the given variable may have an impact on your
data.