FINAL PROJECT: STAT 238 (Introduction to Statistics

& Probability Theory)

Term 1, 2024-2025
Due date: 12: 00 PM on Thursday, 05- December- 2024
_______________________________________________________________________
Instructions
(a) Your reports should be dropped by the due date in the office of the instructor and submitted online via BB.
(b) The online submission includes the report along with excel sheet including the results you received from
the survey.
(c) Write your NAMES, STUDENT NUMBERS, and SIGNATURES on the title page.
(d) To be fair to all, no late reports will be accepted.
Dataset:
You will produce your own dataset for this project (see the given sample questionnaire for assistance). There are
45 variables in the given sample survey. The requirements for the dataset:
1. Minimum number of variables 15 (including at least 4 categorical and at least 4 numerical variables),
2. Minimum sample size 100.

Project Expectations
1. The project should be done in groups of 4-5 students.
2. A preliminary research proposal is due on Sunday, October 20, 2024.
In this proposal, you should include:
I. The list of your group member(s) and each student’s ID #.
II. Your topic and the research questions or hypotheses you will be addressing.
III. A detailed list of the variables that you will have in your dataset. For each variable, indicate if it is
categorical or quantitative, and clearly label what your response/primary variable of interest is.
IV. A detailed plan of the procedure of producing data (how you will produce your data) and expected
sample size (number of observations of subjects in the dataset).
V. An outline of your proposed statistical methods. Which tests do you propose to use to answer the
questions of interest? Do you plan to fit any linear regression models?
VI. The proposal should be submitted online.

3. A typed report (Times New Roman, 1.5 spacing, 12pt font for the text part, 1 inch margin for text on each side of
the page) should be handed in for grading. Number your pages. The report should consist of an appropriate title
that briefly describes the focus of your analysis.
In your report you should include the following sections:
I. Abstract: An “Abstract” of 50-200 words giving the following: Background, Methods, Results, and
Conclusions. The abstract should be written in a style suitable for a general audience. It should not
contain any “statistical language” beyond 5-6 words indicating the analysis method (e.g. “a linear
regression analysis showed . . .” and a few P-values (e.g. “P<0.001”). The abstract should indicate
both the significance and direction of association.
II. Introduction: This section should state the focus of your analysis and ends with a sentence stating the
primary goal of this analysis, and any possible secondary goals. In other words, what are the questions
and/or hypotheses you are actually exploring? And what is the background for these questions?
III. Methods: This section should describe a details description of the dataset including who are the
individuals, what are the variables, how did you collect the data, etc. This section should also describe
the analysis method(s) used, (e.g. bar graph, histogram, box plot, linear regression model) and the
criteria for statistical significance (e.g. p < 0.05). You should use all the tools that you have learned
in this course to analysis your data set.
IV. Result and Discussion: This section should describe the results of the final analysis used to address
your hypotheses or questions mentioned in the introduction section. This may include writing out the
estimated regression model, summarizing results in a table, or any figures that help illustrate the results
shown (scatterplots, side-by-side boxplots, bar graphs, etc...) along with summarizing any main
observations from these well-chosen tables and graphs. All graphs and tables should be included
within the text, numbered, and placed near the area where they are commented on.
NOTE : It is compulsory to use Chi- square test, Side by side boxplot and Scatterplot with
inference at least two times -for each - in your project.

V. Conclusions: This section should be written in the same “non-statistical” style as the abstract (see
comments above for the abstract). This section should summarize the major conclusions about the
research questions from the final analysis and discuss these results. This section should also identify
any major weaknesses of this analysis and discuss the likely impact of such weaknesses on your
conclusions. The final piece of this section should discuss any policy implications of the study and
possible future studies that may be needed to follow-up or confirm the current findings.
VI. Reference: List any references used. In particular, provide reference(s) for additional pieces of
knowledge you relied on, whether it was a book, a journal article or an internet site.
VII. Appendix: Appendices are appropriate for any derivation or program code. The Appendix may include
any Minitab/SPSS output (and possible discussion) that you feel is important in the analysis that you
ran.
4. Subsections with proper titles to address specific aspects should be included to aid grasping/digestion of the
information. Assume that the reader has limited knowledge of statistics.
5. You are expected to describe what is in every plot and table included in the report, interpret them for the reader,
otherwise there is no point in adding such plot/table.
6. Do not include more than one plot to address the same issue. If you have choices, select the nicest or most
informative of the plots. Usually, variety in the plots makes the reading more interesting.
7. The project should be done totally by the students, in case of PLAGIARISM, the student will lose the whole
marks assigned to the project.

Comment on the role of the teaching instructor

Please only consult with the teaching instructor when you run into a problem, not when you are just looking to
have someone check your work. Otherwise, contact with us may become excessive and this project tends to
become a “joint project with us” rather than “your own project.” With that said, the teaching staff may be a
valuable resource to make sure the topic and scope of the project is reasonable from the onset.

The grading rubric

The following grading rubric will be used by the teaching instructors for the grading of the final report.
Points will be awarded with respect to clear and accurate statements and results for the following
components:
I. 1 point for Abstract (provides a clear non-technical statement for each of the 4 main
elements).
II. 1 point Introduction section (provides a statement of the objective of this study and puts
the study in context of the applied subject).
III. 3 points for Methods section (provides a clear statement of the source of the data, the
variables used in the analysis, and the analysis methods).
IV. 4 points for Results section (provides a clear statement of the characteristics of the dataset,
the final analysis results, and observations from the figures).
V. 3 points for Conclusions and Discussion section (provides a well-written statement in non-
technical language that summarizes the major conclusions, describes the study weaknesses,
and outlines the future implications of the results).
VI. 1 point for the Reference and Appendix sections.
VII. 2 points for the overall impression- for professional appearance, polished look, creativity,
effort, and overall clear purpose and conclusions.
VIII. Total points for the report + Total points for presentation= 15+5= 20
IX. points for the entire project.

HAVE FUN!