Please complete the following and remember to turn in your project as a word processed document.
1. Find a large quantitative data set about something that interests you. You can look for data online, in our textbook, in an almanac, etc. Examples of topics:
• a sample of the number of points scored per game by your favorite sports team
• a sample of average starting salaries for your career choice in different regions
• a sample of bottom times for dives at your favorite scuba diving spot
• etc
2. You will be doing this assignment using technology. In particular, you will need to use a program such as SPSS , Minitab, Excel, etc. It does not matter which program you use, but make sure that you treat this as a report when compiling so that it looks nice, uses appropriate statistical vocabulary, has a cover page and so on.
3. If you choose to use SPSS, I have emailed you a copy of a pdf explaining how to use the program. If you will be using this program, read the pdf prior to attempting to go to the lab, so that you are aware of its functions and how to enter data. Again, READ the pdf BEFORE going to the lab. It is shorter than it sounds and you do not need everything in the instructions. The most important is data entry and how to do the things outlined below, but I included many of the powerful capabilities of SPSS.
4. Write a brief introduction paragraph explaining what data set you chose to study, why you chose it and what (if anything) you hope/expect to learn from it. Put this at the beginning of the report in a WORD or GOOGLE document. Remember to INCLUDE THE DATA SET and explain where you got it.
5 Enter the data into SPSS, Minitab, Excel or any suitable data manipulation program.
6. Use technology to construct either a stemplot of the data or a histogram of the data (whichever gives a better sense of the shape of the distribution). Import the graph into a WORD or GOOGLE document. Clean it up a bit so it looks nice and spiffy if need be.
7. Describe the distribution remembering to include important aspects such as the shape, center and spread and make a note of any potential outliers (and check them using the 1.5 IQR Rule).
8. Use the program you are using to find the mean and standard deviation as well as the 5-Number Summary. Import those into the WORD document. Again, clean them up so they look spiffy if need be.
9. Explain which of the number summaries (mean w/ standard deviation or the 5-Number Summary) is the preferred number summary and why. Be sure to refer to the shape of the distribution in your explanation.
10. Write a brief conclusion explaining what you learned. Did you expect the results to be similar to what
you found or different? Any surprises? And describe how you felt about the process of learning a data manipulation program on your own. In this day and age, you will have to do these types of things often to keep up with technology, so I wanted to allow you to try and navigate your way through the software yourself. Do you have any suggestions for future classes?