General Description-
The final project is essentially a small report on a focused question answered by a hypothesis test about one of the following:
- The mean of a population
- The difference between two population means
- A population proportion
- The difference between two population proportions
- The relationship between two variables in a population
State your question or claim up front, and use statistics to help test it. You should think of questions that interest you first, and then worry about how to collect and analyze data to address those questions. The statistics should not drive the question; rather, the question should drive the statistics. Don't just collect data and publish it; rather, has a specific question in mind. Otherwise, you wind up being hard-pressed to come up with something challenging and interesting.
Some ideas for projects:
Below is a list of some project topics that have been done by past statistics students. You may not use any of the questions on this is Instead, consider the list a tool for generating ideas.
1. Are men more likely than women to help someone who has dropped his or her books? Does the sex of the book dropper matter?
2. Does having the pictures on puzzle pieces shorten the time to complete the puzzle
3. Does eating popcorn affect people's enjoyment of movies?
4. Does drinking caffeine affect students' performance on tests?
5. Does wearing shoes affect the height of a vertical jump?
6. Do more than two-thirds of men wash their hands after using the restroom?
7. Are people like the descriptions of their horoscope sign?
8. Are people rational when playing prisoner's dilemma games?
9. Is team payroll related to winning percentages in professional sports?
10. Can we predict the order of the NFL draft based on characteristics of the players?
11. Do the results of federal elections have an effect on stock prices?
12. Is there a correlation between female empowerment and AIDS prevalence in nations across the world?
13. Do certain subpopulations get mammograms more frequently than others?
14. Are members of certain subpopulations (e.g., racial, ethnic, or educational backgrounds) more likely to receive the death penalty?
15. Are policies that reduce governmental debt also associated with reduction in quality of life?
16. Are curfews different for males and females?
17. Do the selling prices of paint horses and quarter horses differ?
18. Does popcorn pop better if the kernels are stored in the refrigerator?
19. Do prices on identical items differ at two local grocery stores (Kroger & Meijer)?
20. Is there a relationship between one's age and the number of medications one takes?
21. Are people "health conscious" when they order food at a restaurant?
22. Are people more likely than not to allow a stranger to but them a doughnut?
23. How old is the average person when he/she takes his/her first drink?
24. Do a majority of Michigan boat launches have handicap access?
Gateway Criteria-
- Paper is handed in before or at the time it is due.
- Summaries in literature review are written in your own words. Plagiarism (copying someone else's words) will result in a zero for this assignment.
- Paper has been typed or word-processed and double spaced. (Graphs and tables cannot be done by hand.)
- There is a cover page containing your name, the date, your instructor's name, and the title of the project.
- This sheet is the second sheet of the project report and all pages are stapled together. All pages should be numbered.
- You have used Standard English and there are no grammatical or spelling errors. (It's a good idea to have someone proof read your project before you turn it in.)
Review of literature, background information-
Is there a statement on why your project is important or relevant? Did you summarize at least three articles related to your study? Did you link your study to a previous study or claim? Is the review of literature at least one page in length?
Research question and statistical hypotheses-
Is your research question, hypothesis, or claim clearly identified? Is your null and alternative hypotheses correctly written using our statistical notation, Ho and H1? Are all variables clearly defined? Is the population of your study clearly defined?
Data collection-
Do you have an appropriate sample size? Are the raw data include or summarized in a table? Is the process you used to randomly select your sample clearly described?
Data Analysis-
Are all tables, data sheets, and graphs neatly constructed and prepared on a computer? Do all computer-generated graphs have a title and properly labeled axes? Did you include all the summary statistics relevant to your study? Did you report the test statistic and the P-value of your test? Did you compute a 95% confidence interval?
Interpretations and Conclusion-
Is the correct decision made to reject or not reject the null hypothesis? Is this decision interpreted correctly in context?
Problems and Future Questions-
Did you describe at least one difficulty that occurred when collecting or analyzing data? Did you describe at least one way you could have improved your study? Did you make at least one suggestion for further work in the area of your topic?