We just finished our final presentations! The panel of judges could not make it to the final presentation, because we had to reschedule the date due to dollars for scholars. The presentations were good overall. We only had one or two days to prepare and create the presentation, so mine did not turn out as good as I would have liked. Reflecting back on this project I feel that I truly did learn a lot about statistics and the stimulus package alike. Overall I found that the majority of people are neutral in their political opinion, and they feel that the stimulus package is not good for our country.

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I just entered my data into an excel chart. I had to enter about 150-200 numbers, so it was VERY repetitive. I created three lists when I first opened the spread sheet. The lists were sex, political score, and stimulus package opinion. In the sex column I listed if the person was a male or female, denoted by M or F. In the political score column I put down the score that the person gave themselves about their political score (it was on a 1 to 10 scale, with 1 being liberal minded while 10 would mean you were conservative). The last column was for the stimulus package opinion. This column recorded the people’s opinion of the package, which they rated on a 1 to 10 scale (1 meaning they dislike it, while 10 means that they like it).

After, I entered in all of the data (there was 50 surveys) I took averages and counts for the total. I use a function called =CountIf (Range, Criteria) to do the counts. For the sex column I used the function to find that 27 of the surveys were completed by males, while 23 were completed by females. Using the =Avg(Range) feature I found that the average political score was a 5.2, while the average stimulus package rating was 3.42. This shows that on average the political views of the people in the sample are relatively neutral (Slightly in favor of conservatives). Also, it shows that the people have a slightly negative attitude towards the stimulus package.

I am going to do the standard deviation and the other numerical summaries in the next few days. I plan on tackling the graphs next week, because I may need to use my teachers computer to create them. Her computer has a newer version of excel, so it has more graphs available.

(REFER TO THIS WEBSITE http://www.usd.edu/trio/tut/excel/ for any EXCEL INFORMATION)

At this point in time I'm settling back into school after my Spring Break. Our teacher has informed us that she wants our final presentations in by next Wednesday. Also, her college professor is most likely coming next Tuesday for a Q&A session. For the presentation we are supposed to make a “hot” PowerPoint. By hot our teacher means that the PowerPoint must be easy to see visually, not too clogged with words, and informative… And All at the same time! Her newfound love of hot power points comes from a book she found called Slideology. This book pretty much is a guide to making professional power points. I will want to spend a good amount of time on the PowerPoint, so I’m looking to knock out the data analysis this week.

Look for me to post about my actual data analysis results later this week.

Finally! I’m done collecting my data. As you already know I administered the survey to 50 of my dad’s patients. From here I plan to start my data analysis. Next week is Spring Break, so I may have a chance to start on the analysis, but I plan on doing the bulk of my analysis in the week after the break. I am going to have to refer back to my data analysis toolbox to help me remember what data analysis methods I am going to use. Now I am starting to realize why my teacher wanted me to create this toolbox in a way where I could simply read directions off of it. It makes the entire process much more efficient and allows you to have a clear cut view on where you stand with regards to your project.

I am going to have to enter my data in Microsoft Excel and my graphing calculator. Technology makes the data analysis part go much faster then it I was to do it by hand. My calculator will be used for most of the numerical summaries, while excel will be used for graphs. The graphs I want to create (histogram, box plot, and normal probability plot) can be created using my calculator and excel. Also, I plan to use excel to organize the numbers because it many different equation functions that can be used. Here is a website that describes some of the functions of Excel that I plan to use in my data analysis (http://www.usd.edu/trio/tut/excel/).

Looking back at my analysis methods remember that I plan to use a confidence interval, which I explained in a previous post, to make predictions about the New Orleans population. This is going to be the most important part of my data, because it will be the part the media are most intrigued by.

I am in the process of collecting my data. This week I was at my spring orientation at Louisiana State University Wednesday through Friday, so I didn't find any time to blog. I collected my data through my dad's business. I got him to administer my survey to 50 of his patients. I feel that his patient base is very diverse, because his patients come from many areas. I had a quick glance through the data I have so far and it seems to be leaning towards slight negativity towards the bailout plan. I plan on running my analysis of the data in the upcoming weeks and will keep you posted.

This week we got our final data analysis toolbox’s revised and checked again by our teacher. We submitted our final version via email, and she is going to check it. I am waiting for her to correct the final version so I can start collecting the data.

As of now I am pretty much ready to go with my data collection, but am waiting for the green light to go. I started thinking of ways to distribute the data. I am going to distribute the surveys at my dad’s practice to his patients. I know that my dad’s patients will offer me with a diverse group of individuals. This will ensure that my sample portrays New Orleans’ individuals the best.