Sta-209 - Final Project (Spring 24)

This project is an opportunity for you to conduct your own applied statistical analysis of data of your choosing. You will work as part of a group of 2 or 3, and you will prepare a 3-page written report documenting your analysis. You will also deliver a short, 7-10 minute presentation your work to the class on a date that we will vote on.

Objectives

During your project you should focus on demonstrating the following:

1. An ability to use data visualizations and descriptive statistics that are appropriate for the variables involved in your analysis.
2. An ability to consider and/or control for confounding variables that are relevant to your analysis.
3. An ability to appropriately integrate methods of statistical inference (confidence intervals and hypothesis testing) into your analysis.
4. An ability to recognize and communicate the practical significance and limitations of your findings.

Timeline:

• Monday 3/4 - Form a group of 2-3, or indicate via email that you’d like to be assigned a group
• Monday 3/11 - Submit a 1-2 paragraph proposal that briefly describes the following:
  1. The research question that your analysis will focus on.
  2. The data you plan on using in your analysis (including information on the primary source, or a plan for collection)
  3. A short justification on why this project has an appropriate level of difficulty for this course and will allow you to fulfill the objectives of this assignment (see previous section). You may outline some of your planned analyses in this part of the proposal.
• Friday 3/15 - Class time will be provided to get started on the project
• Friday 4/26 - An R Markdown file documenting an exploratory analysis of your data is due at 11:59pm. This document should include:
  1. A list and short description of all variables involved in your analysis
  2. At least 2 data visualizations that are relevant to your research question.
  3. A qualitative description of each data visualization and what these visualizations tell you in regard to your research question.
  4. At least one relevant set of descriptive statistics or a regression model, and a quantitative description of what these statistics or model coefficients tell you in regard to your research question.
• Either Wednesday 5/8, or Friday 5/10, or Friday 5/17 at 9am - Present your results
• Friday 5/17 at 5pm - Final report is due

Details:

Final Presentation

Presentations will be 10 minutes and delivered on data voted upon by the class. Your presentation should clearly outline your research question, how your data were collected, the relevant patterns and trends you found in your data, how you used methods of statistical inference, and the practical conclusions you drew from your analysis. the resources section at the end of this assignment for more information on giving a scientific presentation.

Final Paper

Final papers should be no more than three (3) pages in length (single-spaced), including embedded figures and tables, but not including an optional abstract, extra figures or tables that appear in an appendix, or references. The paper should contain the following components: a title, a background section, a methods section, a results section, a discussion section, and references. If you are unsure of how to structure these sections or what information they should contain, please visit the links in the “Resources” section below for guidelines and examples. Recognize that staying within the report’s three-page restriction can take a fair bit of planning and you need to be deliberate and focused in deciding what to include in your report. In statistical analyses it is extremely common to not include everything that was explored when writing up the final results.

DASIL

The Data Analysis and Social Inquiry Lab (DASIL) is an excellent campus resource that can help you acquire and prepare data that might otherwise require tools beyond the scope of this course. Click here for details

USCLAP

The Undergraduate Class Project Competition (USCLAP) holds a paper competition for introductory undergraduate statistics students. The requirements of the competition are very close to those of this assignment’s final report. A successful submission is an excellent resume builder and numerous Grinnell students have won or placed in the past. As an instructor I am willing to help guide revisions of your paper (after you turn it in) in order to facilitate your submission to USCLAP.

Click here for competition details

Resources:

• Final paper examples: https://www.causeweb.org/usproc/usclap/2021/fall/winners
• Final paper structure and guidelines: https://www.causeweb.org/usproc/Report%20Template
• Presentation tips: https://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/ld/resources/presentations

Additional Advice:

• Many students choose to work with topics related to Grinnell College. If you chose to do so and plan on submitting your work to USCLAP, you’ll need to mask any explicit references to the school you’re studying at in order ensure your submission is properly blinded (ie: speak in general terms).
• Visit this link if you need some help finding a data source or coming up with a project topic.