final project

Your final project:

The goal of your final project is to generate some data with an eye on testing some hypothesis. This is intentionally vague, as it leaves you opportunities for different tasks and ideas. You will complete this project with a report; a full write up of each step of the process as well as all materials and a final presentation (presentation board, power point, etc. etc.)

This project is part of your final in this class, and as such will be a large part of your grade.

Schedule for the remainder of this class:

Note: I reserve the right to give you other work as well (especially when looking at graphical design and other areas). This is an outline and other areas may be added based upon the amount of work that still needs to be done and use of class time.

Grading of this project:

This project shall be graded by the following designations:

• • 10% on complete one sheet, revised based upon conversations on 01/20/2012

  • 15% on complete and correct survey or other tools.

  • 25% on correct collection of data

  • 40% on the presentation and analysis of data collected (the final project)

  • 10% on self and group evaluation

Each piece is outlined below for expectations.

One Sheet (due 1/19/2012):

Your one sheet should consist of the following information:

• • Goal: What is the desired goal of the project? What is the thing you want to investigate or measure?

  • Hypothesis: What do you believe the outcome of your project will be? what patterns do you think you will see in your data?

  • Cautions: What problems do you foresee in your data, data collection, experiment? What will you have to watch out for? What issues do you need to make sure you avoid?

  • Procedure: From the one sheet to the final project, you must have everything planned out. This should be done specifically, not generally. You must have a plan, and it should include each person and their specific roles (see the example)

Tools (due 1/24/2012):

Your survey should be complete and ready OR all of the materials and participants should be ready for your experiment by this date. Make sure you have all forms printed and all pieces ready. The more time work on this early, the more time there will be for corrections that I will force you to make.

Do not blame me for changes that I have you make late in the process. You should be asking your group and me about these things early.

Data Collection (due 1/27/2012):

All of your data should be collected by this point. You should have at least 50 data points if a survey, more or less depending on the type of experiment. Your data should be usable, and you should have a clear idea of what you can use compared to what you will have to discard and why.

Final Presentation (due beginning of class 2/02/2012):

Things that must be in the paper:

• • Recap of the one sheet

  • Explanation of the written procedure compared to the actual procedure

  • Your data

    • if you used a survey, include a copy

    • if you used data from somewhere else, give the source as well as any discussion of how they collected the data. Make sure to find any faults with how the data has been collected.

    • make sure your data is attached in some form (.csv file, a table, whatever)

  • A comparison of the cautions to actual problems

  • Graphical information that shows your data

  • A conclusion based upon the data and using mathematical tests we have learned in the classroom.

    • Things to consider: correlation, margin of error or confidence intervals, outliers, five points, population means, or any other important areas that work for your data.

    • Walk me through the important pieces and explain why you did the analysis that you did.

    • If necessary, include a null and alternative hypothesis.

    • Include all r code and graphs that you find that are relevant

  • Changes that you would have made to the procedure if you were to do this again

  • Questions that arose from the information that you collected.

Things that must be in your presentation:

• • Pieces of your one sheet, visible and easy to read/explain

  • Raw data, processed into a table or some other usable form

  • Graphs that depict the information in useful ways (at least 2)

  • At least one graph that makes the data look pretty (though perhaps not as useful as the graphs above)

  • Your data conclusions, as well as any relevant statistical tests

    • note: you can just include the results and not the math (for example, just give the df and the p-value)

  • Time for Q and A from the audience

  • YOUR PRESENTATION DOES NOT HAVE TO INCLUDE EVERYTHING FROM THE PAPER. IT CAN FOCUS ON THE INTERESTING BITS.