Class
project, few examples:
Example
1: Housing.
How
much is the rent of a room in average in Chapel Hill? How does the rent depend
on the size of the room and/or the location?
To
answer these questions, collect data on 20-30
houses or rooms in Chapel Hill, for each room collect the three
following information: rent of a room in the house or rent of the house,
distance to campus, number of rooms in the house.
Target
population: all houses or rooms in Chapel Hill.
Individuals:
houses.
Variables:
1.
Rent
of the house in dollars (continuous).
2.
Distance
to campus in miles (continuous).
3.
Number
of rooms in the house (categorical).
Possible
sources to collect the data: Village advocate http://www.triangle.com/triangle.com/communities/chapelhill/index.html,
and Chapel Hill rent website http://www.chapelhillrent.com
Example
2: Health
What
is the average calorie content of frozen food, canned food or snacks? Is
serving size (grams) the same for entrees or deserts?
Collect
data on 20-30 frozen, canned food or snacks. For each type of food, find the
serving size in grams, number of calories per serving size, and category of
food (entrée, desert or other).
Target
population: all frozen food, all canned food, or all snacks.
Individuals:
frozen food, canned food, or snacks.
Variables:
1.
Example
of quantitative variables: Serving size in grams, number of calories per
serving size, and price.
2.
Example
of categorical variables: type (entrée, dessert or other), taste (salty, sweet
or other).
Source
of data: collect data at any grocery store.
Example
3: Weather.
Was
the weather this month unusual? (comparison to past weather) How is the
relationship between average temperature and humidity/precipitation?
Target
population: all cities in the US.
Individuals:
cities.
Variables:
-
Example
of continuous variables: time (day, year), temperature (F or C), humidity,
precipitation, altitude, latitude, longitude…etc.
Source
of the data: National Climate Data Center http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/ncdc.html
Example
4: Survey
Collect
information (anonymous) about students in your class, students in your dorm,
students in your university, people in your town or people in your sports team.
Type
of questions of interest: What is the average height, average age, average shoe
size? How far from campus–on average- do students live? How many people in
average have a car and live on campus? Does the height of a person depend on
the height of their parents?
Target
population: all students, all students in the dorms, everyone in Chapel Hill,
or everyone in your sports team.
Individuals:
students, people in your town, or in your sports team.
Variables:
1.
Example
of quantitative variables: height (foot, inch), parent’s heights (foot inch),
weight (lb), size of dorm room (sq. feet), distance from home to campus (miles),
age (years), shoe size, and number of classes taken.
2.
Example
of categorical variables: Residency (in state/out of state), years in school (
sophomore, junior, senior..etc), gender (male/female), and whether they like or
dislike…. (yes,no, or no opinion).