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Obscure Stats

AP STATISTICS

Fourth Quarter Hypothesis Test/Chi Squared Project

Your project team will be randomly  issued a testable hypothesis. Your team's task will be to design a property controlled experiment or observational study to test it,  carry out the experiment or study,  and analyze the resulting data. The emphasis is on proper design  and analysis technique, not so much  on  gathering a large enough data set to be able to reach  an  authoritative conclusion (you don't need to worry  about the power of your test). Your data set should include  a minimum of  20  sample  values.

Your report should be typewritten  and should be detailed and thorough using all the good techniques you have learned throughout the year.

In your written report, you should:

• Clearly state your null and alternative hypotheses.
• Describe how you carried out the experiment/study.
• Discuss why you designed the experiment/study the way you did.
• Include all the data you gathered (perhaps as an appendix).
• Present the data graphically and/or in tables.
• Use good data summaries (means, standard deviations, or other measures)
• Describe the test of your hypothesis and show your calculations.
• Make some conclusion about your hypothesis, using appropriate p-values.

Guidelines for the Written Report:

1.     Introduction

2.    Analysis

a.    Write, in words (not symbols), what the null and the alternative hypothesis are.

b.    In paragraph form, write how you designed the experiment/study and collected your data. Make sure that you mention any randomness, blocking, or lurking variables that you controlled for.  Explain what kind of sample you took (including size), how you selected it what data you collected and how it was collected.

c.    Restate your null and alternative hypothesis using symbols.

d.    Explain which statistical test you will use to test your  hypothesis. Give an explanation why you chose the test that you did and then tell what assumptions you had to make in order to use this test.  Carry out the testing of your assumptions and explain if you can continue.  If you fail to meet these assumptions, explain which one(s) failed.  Carry out the test anyway and in your conclusions discuss this.

e.    Run your statistical tests. Show the formulas you used, the substitution step, and the answers you got . Give p-values.

f.     Based on part e, state any conclusions that you can make. This should be several sentences long. You should include here an explanation of any problems you had that might have affected the outcome of your data or your conclusion.

3.    Conclusion: Write a conclusion to your experiment/study in language ANYONE could understand, even someone who doesn’t know much about statistics.

NOTE: This project will be worth THREE test grades, or 3OOpoints!

Checkpoints:

1 .      Teacher discussion regarding hypothesis to be tested:

2.      Page or two on experiment design/observational study and data analysis plan:

3.      Copy of the raw data from the experiment/study:

4.      Final written report:

5.      Class Presentation (Inquire about format) :