Statistics 401B Project #1 Description Fall 2008
Part of your course grade in STAT 401 depends upon successful, on time, completion of
Team Project #1. This project is to be done in a team of no more than 5. It should result
in a thorough, but concise, professional quality technical report of not more than 10 typed
(12 pt font or larger) double-spaced pages. Projects are to be handed in to Dr. Bob by the
end of class Friday, October 31, 2008. The written reports will not be returned, so if you
want to have a copy to keep, make a copy before turning in the report.
Statistics is the study of how best to collect, summarize and draw conclusions from data.
When working with data one is always faced with variability. The focus of this project is
on correlation and simple linear regression, using one variable to help explain the
variability in a second variable. You must plan, collect, and analyze the results of a
sampling study or experiment that looks at the relationship between two numerical
variables. You must have at least 40 data points in your study. You are to make a
thorough but concise report of your entire study. Include at least:
• An executive summary (a brief, one or two paragraphs, but complete summary of
what you have done and what you have learned). This should be written in a
manner that can be read and understood by someone who may not know much
about statistics.
• A description of your sampling study or experiment including:
o The question, or problem, you investigated.
o Explanatory and response variables.
o A statement of how you expected the study to turn out before you
collected your data.
o What you did to collect the data.
o A list of the raw data you obtained and circumstances surrounding their
collection.
o Appropriate statistical analyses of the data (use graphical as well as
numerical summaries and include interpretations).
o A statement of what you learned about your problem from the analysis of
the data.
o A discussion of further questions raised by your study that might be
investigated in the future.
Simply attaching a ream of JMP output is not an appropriate statistical analysis! The
main body of the report should include only the end products of any statistical
calculations. You should cut/paste important graphs and output into the body of your
report. Remember JMP gives you more than you need so do not include graphs and
output that are not needed. Including unnecessary JMP output will result in deductions
from your final project score.
