Stat 301 – HW 1

Due midnight, Friday, Jan. 10

 

The homework assignment below is to be submitted in Canvas. The official deadline is Friday night, but Saturday submissions will be graded without penalty. You are expected to be working on the assignment throughout the week, especially asking questions in class during the week. Please upload Word or PDF format only.

 

You are encouraged to work together on the assignment, but then you should:

-        Write up your own answers or

-        Submit joint answers, that you have both discussed and fully contributed to, with up to one partner.

If you decide to submit a single document for 2 people: In Canvas, you need to join a HW1 group before you submit. To do this: click on the People link on the left panel. Then select the Groups tab. You can search on HW 1.  Find an empty group and have both of you join the group. Then submit the assignment. Only one group member should submit the assignment but both names need to be inside the file.  If you submit the assignment individually, just submit.  You can change your groups for different assignments.

 

1) (Individual) Initial course survey, Curiosity Survey, Attitudes Survey and Demographics Questionnaire, and Consent Forms A and C in Canvas (full credit for submissions), and the AI survey (PingPong)

 

2) Practice Problem A.B (p. 9)

Submit your answer to the last bullet of (a) and your answer to (b). Your answer to (b) should be your own thinking, you should not look up any definitions. (full credit for submissions)

 

Graded for correctness.  Be sure to read p. 9 first.

3) The AnthemTimes2024.txt file has data on the length of the performance of the national anthem preceding the National Football League’s Super Bowl for games from 1980 (Super Bowl 14) to 2024 (Super Bowl 57).

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Source: Note: There are two columns for times (the first is from a colleague of mine watching and timing each one, the second one is from sportsbettingdime).

(a) If we define “SuperBowl” as the observational unit,

- is genre a quantitative or categorical variable?

- is sbdTime a quantitative or categorical variable?

- is size a quantitative or categorical variable?

- is year a quantitative or categorical variable?

 

Updated instructions: Open the Descriptive Statistics applet (e.g.,  ISCAM Data files and Applets page > Applets > Chapter 0).

Press the Clear button to clear the current data and type in: AnthemTimes2024.txt (with capitalization). Then press Use Data twice (first to preview the data, then to load in the data).

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The SB Anthems data from the pull-down menu is only through 2022.

(b) Use the pull-down menu to select the sbdTime variable to create a dotplot. Select the Guess box for the mean. Then check the Show deviations from guessed mean box. Use your mouse to move the red vertical line for the mean until the sum of the deviations above and below the mean equalize. What value do you find for the mean? Explain how this implies the mean can be interpreted as the “balance point” of the distribution.

 

Uncheck the Guess Mean box.

(c) Identify the performer (by name) with the shortest performance time. (There are some things you can do in the applet to help but you may just want to look through the data file as well.)

(d) Switch to a histogram. Add the mean, median, and standard deviation values. Include a screen capture of your graph.  Add an “active title” to the graph that briefly summarizes the data and a lesson learned about the distribution. Then also include a sentence or two summarizing the shape, center, and variability of the distribution in context.  Be sure to cite your numerical values (with measurement units) in these sentences to support your statements.

(e) Use the Separate By pull-down menu to select Sex. Which type of performers tend to have longer anthem times?  (Cite your evidence.) Which type of performers tend to have the more consistent anthem times? (Cite your evidence).

(f) Give one number to predict the performance length in the Super Bowl LIX (Jon Batise). Also include some indication of how accurate you think your prediction will be. (Cite any external information/additional analysis that you use.)

 

4) Practice Problem B.C (p. 16)

Graded on your explanations.

Typo: One way to measure variability

 

Example Extension Assignments

You should submit two extensions assignments on anything you find interesting this quarter, just summarizing the experience, or one data collection activity/analysis by the end of the quarter. Below are some possible ideas to help you brainstorm.

·       Find a government data set of interest.  Download the data and make an informative visual. Interpret your visual in context.

·       Find a study reported on in the news.  Identify the research question, the variables, and classify the variables as quantitative or categorical.  Critique the report of the study, what critical information did you find lacking? What questions do you still have about the study?  Can you access the original study? If so, does this impact your critique?

·       Examine the graph below showing how the mean and median wages have changed over time.  Comment on what this tells you about “income inequality” in the United States.

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