Outline for the Written Report An electronic copy of yourwritten report is due on Blackboard by
Please use a paper clip (or nothing) to hold it together (no staples).
Not turning in either the electronic copy or the paper copy will result in a loss of 10 points on the written report.
If you turn in the written report (both on BB and a paper copy) early, you will earn bonus points on the overall project.
There is no required length for the report. Label each section of the report as shown below.
Place a 0 before all decimal numbers and show just 3 significant digits (e.g.; 5.42 or 0.802 or 0.0319).
Title Page (10 points) along with correct spelling and grammar throughout the paper
Your names, date, course, class time, and a title (make up a title that is related to the hypothesis you investigated).
Abstract (6 points)
In about 4 or 5 sentences, mention your hypothesis, data collected, and whether your findings supported the hypothesis.
Introduction (10 points)
Explain why you chose your topic and provide a number of reasons as to why people would be interested in finding out the results of your investigation. Try and think of as many reasons as you can.
Methods (7 points)
Describe the survey that was used to collect your data. Explain why four scaled survey questions were used instead of just one, and mention the 7-point scale that was used to quantify the survey responses. What characteristic would a person giving disagree responses (i.e.; 1, 2, 3) have? What characteristic would a person giving agree responses (i.e.; 5, 6, 7) have? Refer the reader to Appendix A where your survey is located.
Investigation (7 points)
Explain why you are performing an F-test on the variances before performing the t-test. Explain what is being tested in the
F-test and give the significance level being used. Next explain why you are performing a t-test on the mean responses, explain what is being tested in the t-test, and give the significance level of the t-test. Be sure to mention that the alternative hypotheses of the t-test is your proposed hypothesis. (This section can be written before any data is collected. It should not mention anything specific to your sample data – do not mention sample sizes, sample means, test results, etc.)
Results (28 points)
Explain how you collected your data (email, in-person via tablet PC, in person verbally, in-person on paper, etc.). Give your “response rate” for each method used (the percentage of people you asked to fill out the survey who actually completed the survey). Did you give an incentive? If so, what did you use? Explain how you chose your sample and what you did to insure that the sample was randomly selected. Refer the reader to the 4 Excel worksheets in Appendix B.
Interpret the 4 average question responses (see row 32). Mention the highest and lowest pairwise correlations (the questions and their numerical correlations) and explain why you think this happened. If any correlations are negative, mention which ones, their numerical values, and explain why you think that happened. Mention the average correlations of the best and the worst questions and provide reasons why you think it turned out that way. Indicate the reliability of your survey as measured by Cronbach’s Coefficient. If the value of this statistic is at least 0.70, then your survey successfully measured your characteristic of interest. If it is less than 0.70, then your survey did not do a good job of measuring this characteristic (e.g.; study habits in the example) and suggest a new question that could be used to improve your survey.
Discuss the results of the F-test. State the sample variances for each group. In the example, the sample variance was 1.38 for the exercisers and 1.65 for the non-exercising group. So, the variation in study habits from one survey respondent to the next was lower for the sample of exercisers. State the F-test’s p-value (72.8%), the conclusion of the test, and indicate which of the two t-tests will be used to compare the mean responses. In the example, despite the difference in the sample variances, the two variances cannot be considered different in the populations and, therefore, the two-sample t-test assuming equal variances is used to test the project’s main hypothesis.
Discuss the results of the t-test. State the sample means and sample sizes. In the example, the sample of 17 exercising students had a mean response of 4.50 (slightly good study habits) and the sample of 13 non-exercising students had a mean response of 3.83 (slightly poor study habits). Indicate whether the higher sample mean was that of the group expected to have the higher mean (e.g.; as expected, the exercising group has a higher mean response). State the t-test’s p-value (7.33%) and indicate whether your proposed hypothesis could be supported. Interpret the results in the context of your project’s topic. Remember that you haven’t proved anything about the populations. Evidence from your sample data has simply provided you with information needed to draw a conclusion about the populations. There is always a chance you have formed an incorrect conclusion. Therefore, you do not have proof that the findings of your hypothesis test are correct.
Conclusions (12 points)
Discuss real-world implications of your findings for those who might be interested (see the Introduction). Also mention any problems and/or difficulties you had in doing this project. How much trouble did you have getting students to complete your survey? If you offered students an incentive for filling out the survey, do you think it helped? Be honest and provide your thoughts about the project and provide suggestions for future classes. Please don’t be too brief here.
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