GOAL

The purpose of this project is to provide you with an opportunity to perform basic data analysis, from beginning to end, using tools and concepts covered in our course. This includes everything from:         formulating a study question, reading in and cleaning data, performing exploratory data analysis and  representing them using select numerical and graphical summaries, performing inferential statistics,   and communicating your findings using both technical and non-technical language. Thegrading rubric for the proposal is the same whether you choose to work individually or with a partner

 SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

You will need to submit for your project:

▪   Mini-report with appendix and citations

▪   .rmd file

▪   Data file (.csv) if you are working with an external data set

 INDIVIDUAL WORK

In your individual and independent final project, you will need to perform appropriate exploratory data analysis to your data set, along with at least two of the following statistical methods,                appropriately chosen for your research question:

•   Statistical inference using confidence intervals (single mean/variance or two population means) OR bootstrapped confidence intervals

•   Statistical inference using hypothesis testing (single mean or two population means) OR simulated hypothesis tests

•   Estimator analysis through simulation methods (such as simulating new data or bootstrapping)

•   Goodness of fit test

•   Simple Linear Regression, including diagnostics and inference on parameters (i.e., Confidence intervals and/or hypothesis testing of beta parameters are part of SLR)

 PAIR WORK

These instructions apply to students who are working with a partner and submitted a group proposal    already on Quercus. If you choose to work with a partner, it will be you and your partners’                       responsibility to establish how work is fairly shared, and to manage yourselves in establishing work        expectations, meeting deadlines, and having a mutual agreement on calibre/quality of work you expect of each other as was outlined in your submitted Pair Work Contract.

In your final project working as a pair, you will need to submit as part of your final project two sets of data analyses:

1. Answer one research question using simple linear regression analysis (complete with inference on parameters), complete with diagnostics

AND

2. Perform appropriate exploratory data analysis to your data set, along with at least two of the following statistical methods, appropriately chosen for your second research question:

•   Statistical inference using confidence intervals (single mean/variance or two population means) OR bootstrapped confidence intervals

•   Statistical inference using hypothesis testing (single mean or two population means) OR simulated hypothesis tests

•   Estimator analysis through simulation methods (such as simulating new data or bootstrapping)

•   Goodness of fit test

 PROJECT INSTRUCTIONS

For your final project, you will build upon your project proposal by implementing the methodologies proposed, with any suggested adjustments, and adding in an introduction for your data and research question. Your next steps in your project are to…

1.   Introduction: Write an introduction to your report. Your introduction should begin with your   research question or goal, an introduction to your data set (what is contained in your data set, how it was collected/measured, the context in which the data were gathered), and a                 description of the variables you will study specifically, along with any exploratory data analysis that provides more understanding of the context of your data to the reader. Most of this was  done in your proposal already, it just needs to be tidied up to read like an introduction.

2.   Conduct the analyses using the methodologies that were given the OK in your proposal and/or any improved methodologies based on the feedback on your proposal. Regardless of

methodology, this should be done in an .rmd file to ensure your text and work are all well- presented and ready to read.

o  If your methodology involves many computations (more than half a page), it should   instead be organized into the appendix. A summary of the work and results should be included in your methodology discussion section, along with a note to refer to the      appendix for complete analyses.

o  If you are producing any code in R chunks, this should also be organized into your      appendix. Be sure your R chunks are visible in your output file, with comments that   explain your code. Wrap your code to ensure that it doesn’t run off the page/code    chunk in the output. A summary of findings or primary outputs should be included in your methodology discussion section. For example, in EDA, your report should only   display the graphs and summary statistics, while your appendix will contain all the R chunks, code, and outputs displayed.

o  Use appendix labels to help locate your work better (e.g., Appendix A, Appendix A.1, Appendix B, etc.)

3.   Discuss the findings in your methodologies. Your findings should include both technical results using appropriate terminology and interpretation in plain English. In the latter case, your          intended audience is anyone without a statistics background (i.e., they should be able to           understand your results). (Approximately 1 paragraph per methodology)

4.   Conclusion: Summarize your findings/analyses and tie them back to your research question       (this may overlap with your discussions above but in less detail) . For most projects, you might  not be able to answer the research question definitively, but you should discuss what your        findings suggest about potential answers to your research question. This is also a good place to mention any shortcomings of your methodologies that may affect the validity of your results.

(Approximately 1-2 paragraphs)

5.   Write up a final mini-report that ties everything together. You should format your report with the reader in mind. Recommended lengths are included in parentheses:

I .        INTRODUCTION AND RESEARCH QUESTION (1-2 PARAGRAPHS)

II .        DATA AND EXPLORATORY DATA ANALYSIS (1 PAGE OF EDA)

III .        METHOD 1 & FINDINGS (FINDINGS: ~1 PARAGRAPH)

IV .        METHOD 2 & FINDINGS (FINDINGS: ~1 PARAGRAPH)

V .        CONCLUSION (1-2 PARAGRAPHS)

vi.      APPENDIX AND CITATIONS (CITING YOUR DATA SOURCE, ANY LONGER CALCULATIONS/DERIVATIONS)

Citation style:APA/MLA/Chicago styles only. The written portion of your report should be     approximately 1000 words long, (1800 if it is a pair submission for your SLR study). Use only: Times New Roman/Arial/Calibri, size 12 font.