The final project is a group project. Your group should be no larger than 4 people. The project is worth _____ points and will be due: ____________________.
Object
The purpose of the group project is to give you an opportunity to demonstrate that you understand the concepts of data collection, data organization, estimation, and inference and to allow you to synthesize and apply what you have learned this semester.
How to Begin
Decide on a topic. There are many good suggestions on pages 722 – 725 of your text.
This is also an interesting time in history both at the local and national level. There are many important, relevant issues that can be explored with this project. Another idea might be to begin with a poll you have seen in the newspaper and see if you can replicate the results in your community. You will be required to submit a written proposal describing your project. Your proposal will be subject to my approval and may be rejected if the topic is perceived as trivial.
Once you have chosen a topic, develop two hypotheses – one that deals with a single population and one that compares two populations. For example, if your topic is cloning, your two hypotheses might be:
I. The majority of individuals are in favor of cloning. (Single population)
II. More men than women favor cloning for the purpose of tissue replacement.
(Two population – comparing the opinions of men and women)
At this point you are ready to create an official proposal for approval. Your proposal should be stated using language and form similar to that used in the Sample Proposal on page 47 of your lab manual.
First Due Date: Proposal due by: _____________________________
You will also need to create the questionnaire you will use to collect your information.
This questionnaire must ask all questions necessary to prove or disprove your hypotheses.
So if we are using the two hypotheses above, the questions that you will need to prove these hypotheses are:
1. Do you favor cloning ? (Yes/No)
2. Do you favor cloning for the purpose of tissue replacement ? (Yes/No)
3. Gender (Male/Female)
Besides these questions, you will be required to ask at least three additional questions which may be used to describe the demographics of the group that you are surveying and might explain the results you obtain. For example, if you are using the cloning questions above, relevant questions might be:
1.Political Affiliation; 2.Religious Conviction; 3.Years of Education; 4. Age;

5. Occupation
Second Due Date: Questionnaire due by: _____________________________
How To Proceed
Once your proposal and questionnaire are officially approved, you may proceed as follows:
1. Conduct your survey.
2. Use MINITAB to tabulate the results of your survey.
You must turn in a tabulation of all raw data collected to receive full credit.
3. Code your raw data so that it may be used to test your hypotheses.
( Your instructor will help you with this part if necessary)
4. Perform a complete descriptive analysis on all of your data, including your
demographic data. If your data is quantitative, include the mean, median, mode,
standard deviation, and a boxplot. Include any graphs that you feel might help
illustrate your data such as histograms and pie charts. If your data is qualitative,
find the mode and create pie charts.
5. Using your summary data, construct a confidence interval to estimate the true
population mean or proportion for the single population question .Then construct a
confidence interval to estimate the difference between two population means or
proportions for your two population question.
6. Test your hypotheses using the appropriate hypothesis tests.
7. Create your project report. (See checklist below)

The following list describes all the sections that you will include in your typewritten project report.
It describes everything that I want to see when I grade your paper. You should look over the list now to familiarize yourself with the tasks that you will perform to complete your group project. Then before you turn in the project this list will act as a checklist to make sure that you’ve completed all the requirements of the project.
Incomplete projects will be docked for missing sections.
1. Cover Sheet —should include the names of all group members. Impressive and/or creative titles are encouraged!
2. Main Body —should include the following subsections (Subsections should be clearly marked using the numbering system given.):
2.1) An explanation of the hypotheses
2.2) A discussion about whether or not your data were sufficient to support your hypotheses (In this section you should state, in plain English, the conclusion of each hypothesis test. Refer the reader to the appropriate page of the Appendix for the complete hypothesis test containing all the other steps. In addition, you should interpret the confidence interval for the unknown parameter of each hypothesis test in this section. Refer the reader to the appropriate page in the Appendix that contains the work in constructing your confidence intervals.)
2.3) A discussion of how you collected your raw data (You should be very specific here. Include the dates and times at which you collected data, as well as the locations. If you asked a passersby, tell me how you decided who you would talk to and who you would not talk to.)
2.4) A discussion as to whether or not you believe your data are random and representative of your population(s) (Your goal in inferential statistics is to get a representative sample, that is, a sample that exhibits characteristics typical of those possessed by the population from which the sample is drawn. The most common way to ensure your sample is “representative” is to obtain a random sample, that is, a sample that is drawn from the population in such a way that every sample of equal size has an equal probability of being drawn as yours. In reality, we hope to obtain a
“representative sample.” In this subsection you should discuss whether or not you did a very good job of choosing a random sample. If you did not do a good job, this is your chance to tell me that you realize that. You will NOT be docked points for recognizing flaws in your sampling technique. You WILL be docked points for not recognizing flaws (if there are any) in your sampling technique. Recall from the
Project Proposal that you will be using systematic sampling to collect your sample.)
2.5) A description of the demographics of your sample ( Using the demographic questions from your questionnaire, describe the demographics of your sample, i.e. mean age; percentage of males vs. females; percentage of individuals having a

particular political affiliation or religious conviction; mean income; occupation; etc. your information should be presented in a paragraph and you should refer the reader to the appropriate pages in the Appendix which support your demographic analysis)
2.6) A general summary of your findings (This is your chance to come clean if you realize that you made an unjustified assumption when carrying out your test of hypotheses.( For instance if you assumed that students know their GPA and find that they do not) If you realize that your sample is not random, then you need to tell me that your conclusion (from your test of hypothesis) cannot be trusted. You should include here a description of how you would do things differently next time.
If your work is flawless, this is your chance to tell me so.)
2.7) Who is responsible? (Each member of the group must state what they contributed to the project. Each member must sign this part of the report signifying that they agree with all statements made. If there are differences of opinion you should consult your instructor)
3. Appendix
—should include the following subsections:
3.1) Questionnaire (Include a copy of the questionnaire/data collection sheet that you used to collect your raw data.)
3.2) Table of Raw Data (Include a table that gives ALL the raw data collected from each person surveyed. You may want use an Excel Spreadsheet (loaded on computers in the Computer Place and Math Lab). Each row of the table should represent one person’s responses, and columns should contain all the responses of that person to the questions on your questionnaire. For example, if your questionnaire has 5 questions, then your table should have 5 columns containing the responses of each respondent to your 5 questions. Label columns so that it is clear which column contains responses to which question on the questionnaire. Failure to include this table will result in an automatic deduction of one grade level (A to B, B to a C, etc.))
3.3) A presentation of your raw data in both numerical (if quantitative data is collected) and graphical form (all cases) [Each question of your questionnaire is used to collect data—qualitative or quantitative. If a question is collecting quantitative data, you should use Minitab to construct a histogram or a stem-andleaf display (or both) for the data collected. Also have Minitab include descriptive statistics (recall Lab #1)—mean, standard deviation, etc.—for the data. If a question is collecting qualitative data, have Minitab construct a bar chart or pie chart for the data. Make sure all visual representations of data are clearly marked so that the reader knows which question from the questionnaire the picture represents, and be sure that every question on the questionnaire is represented graphically in one of the ways described above.
3.4) Project Proposal (Include your original project proposal that has my written
“approval” on it.)

3.5) A statistical analysis of the data (This is where you should show me ALL the steps in your tests of hypotheses. You do not need to spend a lot of time typesetting mathematical notation. This may be done neatly by hand. All writing should be done on a word processor. Just leave space to write in computations and pictures of distributions. You should also show all work in constructing your confidence intervals. Again, this may be done neatly by hand. Recall that you interpreted your confidence intervals in the Main Body—so you don’t have to interpret your confidence intervals here.)