Statistics Correlation and Regression Project                          Due Friday, February 16

 

 

The purpose of this project is to apply the concepts and tools of correlation and linear regression to explore the relationship between two quantitative variables of your choice.  Your assignment is to determine two quantitative values you believe would have a closely linear relation, collect data for 30 individuals, analyze your results statistically, and present your findings in a narrative style paper.  Your paper should be typed and edited, graphs may be carefully drawn by hand.  Additional grading considerations will include creativity in choice of topic, accuracy and completeness in interpreting your statistics, and the clarity and flow of your writing style.

The most important aspect of your paper is how clearly and accurately you discuss and summarize the practical interpretations of your statistics.  The statistical concepts and quantities you should be sure to address are:

•       Motivation, expectation (hypotheses)
•       Individuals, explanatory and response variables
•       Data collection method
•       Description of scatterplot (form, strength, association, outliers and possible explanations for them)
•       Regression line (interpretation of slope and y-intercept)
•       Interpretation of examples of prediction
•       Interpretation of , , and .  What other factors might account for the  percentage?  How do the values of these quantities affect your confidence in your predictions?

The data, scatterplot with regression line, equation of line and values of , , and  should be included at the end of your paper.  I assume that all of you know how to obtain these quantities directly from a calculator or computer, so including formulas and calculations is unnecessary, although labels and units are still important.

 

Some resources and suggestions:

• Look for topics of interest to you.  Talk to professors in other disciplines-can they suggest sources of data?  Run your idea by me.

• You may work in groups of two or three.  (In fact, I would encourage this!)

• Copies of previous projects are available in the Math Lab.  Please respect current and future statistics students by not removing these copies from the lab.

• If you bring your data already entered on your calculator, Casey can assist you in the Math Lab in using TI-Interactive to obtain a printable display of your data, all relevant statistics and the scatterplot and regression line.  Plan ahead if you expect to take advantage of this opportunity; meet with Casey at least a few days before the project is due, last minute requests may be denied.

• If you bring your paper to me a few days prior to the due date, I will make suggestions for improvement for final submission.  Again, last min