Math 136

Mathematics for the Liberal Arts

Syllabus | Homework Assignments | Extra Handouts | Formulas | Home

Project 4 - Statistics

Objective: To understand how to analyze and interpret raw data.

• You may work alone or with one or two other people from the class (No more than three people in a group). If you work with other people, you will hand in one project and each of you will receive the same grade, so be sure every member of the group contributes equally to the project.
• When you submit the project, use only one side of each piece of paper. The project should have a title sheet with the name of each person.
• If you hand in the project late, points will be deducted from your grade.

You are to collect ONE measurement from each of 25 elements (e.g. people, states, teams). The measurement you are collecting should be available for each element, non-sensitive, and as accurate as possible.

Examples of such sets:

• numbers of college credits earned by students in a class
• number of siblings of children in a nursery school
• number of students enrolled in colleges
• distance driven to work or school
• number of computers you have at home

It is not recommended asking age, weight, or salary because of sensitivity.

Method:

1. Clearly state the topic for your study and why you chose it.
2. Clearly define your population.
3. Explain clearly the sampling method you used for collecting your data (page 663).
4. List the raw data that you have collected.
5. Organize your data into a stem-and-leaf display (page 681).
6. Find the range of your data (page 695).
7. Construct a frequency and relative frequency table for your data. You have to make a decision between an ungrouped frequency table or grouped frequency table. Explain clearly why you made such decision. (page 673) If you decide to use a grouped frequency table. Make sure you decide the class width before you construct the frequency table.
8. Using the information above, create a frequency histogram. Make sure to label each axis and include a title. (page 678.)
9. Find the following statistics for your raw data. (page 686) You may use calculator to find the mean.
   1. mean
   2. median
   3. mode
   4. midrange
   5. Which of these three averages do you feel best describes your data? Explain clearly.
10. Find the standard deviation for your data. You may use calculator to find the standard deviation.
11. Write a paragraph summarizing what you learned about your data from this project.