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MAT 152: Cumulative Term Project

Develop a Topic

The most important aspects of any statistical analysis are stating questions and collecting data.  Hence, to get the full experience of running your own study, the project requires you to analyze data that you collect.  You are permitted to collect data off of the web; however, you will be the one doing the analyses in the context of that data.

Good projects begin with very clear and well-defined hypotheses.  You should think of questions that interest you first, then worry about how to collect and analyze data to address those questions.   Generally, vague topics lead to vague projects.   

For example, surveying undergraduates to see which sex studies more doesn't yield a whole lot of interesting conclusions.   On the other hand, it would be interesting to hypothesize why men or women study more, and then figure out how to collect and analyze data to test your hypotheses.  

On this page you will find some successful project topics that have been done by past statistics students. This isn't a list that you have to pick from; in fact, I encourage you to come up with something else.  Instead, consider the list a tool for generating ideas.

1.   Are men more likely than women to help someone who has dropped his or her books?  Does the sex of the book dropper matter?

2.   Does having the pictures on puzzle pieces shorten the time to complete the puzzle relative to not having the pictures?

3.   Does eating popcorn affect people's enjoyment of movies?

4.   Does drinking caffeine affect students' performance on tests?

5.   Does wearing shoes affect the height of a vertical jump?

6.   Does birth order affect academic success?

7.  What is more important to a student when choosing a major: interest in the subject, career aspirations, family influence, or ability in the subject?

8.  Are people like the descriptions of their horoscope sign?

9.  Is team payroll related to winning percentages in professional sports?

10.  Can we predict the order of the NFL draft based on characteristics of the team?

11.  Do the results of federal elections have an effect on stock prices?

12.  Are members of certain subpopulations (e.g., racial, ethnic, or educational backgrounds) more likely to receive the death penalty?

It is important to be thoughtful about, and provide an adequate description of, the methods and design of the study.  Report on the possible biases associated with your data collection or data source.  You also need to be realistic in planning your research design: can you carry out what you have planned within a reasonable time period and investment of your own energy? The quality of the final product is what counts, not the amount of time that went into it!  
Finally, you should make use of the concepts and methods learned in this course, and not just general knowledge, in planning and completing this type of project.