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.

check my blog out

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.

One of the biggest goals of my project is to grab the attention of the media. Our teacher has told us that she is going to get a panel of judges and media to come view our projects once we have finished collecting and analyzing the data.

To appeal to the media I must first ask myself: What are the media looking for? Usually people involved with media are only interested in, well… interesting stories. They want something that they can wow people with or that they can quickly grab the attention of people with. The material they use must also be relevant to what is going on in today’s world and be tied to the lives of people in some way. No one is going to be interested in something that does not directly relate to them or affect them.

The topic of my project, the opinion of New Orleans’ citizens on the bailout plan, is something that many people are interested in. It is very much relevant to today’s world and is something that affects all Americans. The way I can make this appealing topic even more appealing is by presenting the data in an interesting way. In a way the graphs and data analysis methods used to describe the data can make the data more appealing. For example, a confidence interval of my sample could help me predict how the population of New Orleans felt as a whole about this stimulus package. A lot of people don’t know about certain statistical analysis methods and graphs, so the graphs and analysis should be presented in a way where the people can easily understand it. Ultimately a strong choice of words would both appeal to and inform the individuals very well. For my project I hope to attract the attention of the Times Picayune newspaper. I feel that if they publish my info in their newspaper then it will catch the eyes of thousands of people.

Here are two websites that show and describe some statistical methods I will use:

http://www.isixsigma.com/library/content/c010527c.asp

http://www.netmba.com/statistics/plot/box/

As of now I am past the planning stages of my project. I just completed my data analysis toolbox corrections. Now it is time to start to distribute the survey and then collect the data. I have just completed my data analysis toolbox editing, and I am planning on waiting for the corrections to start the distribution process. I want to make sure my methods and survey are right before going ahead with the distribution process. I plan to try and get as many responses to this survey as possible. Having a large sample would mean better results to use for predictions about the population. Most of my sample will come from individuals I know, although I plan to try and pick individuals from different areas of New Orleans.

A few weeks ago we turned in our data analysis toolbox. This toolbox is used to outline our project and describe all of the methods and tools we will use to complete it. When our teacher handed the corrected versions back to us she told me that mine was the best in the class. She did not mean that it was perfect, but she meant that I had done the best job. My toolbox had no corrections made by her in ink, but she simply stated that the data analysis toolbox should be more detailed. Also, she wanted me to include the survey I plan to use in my survey. She told us that once we finished the toolbox it should be so detailed that we could simply read off of it and simply perform the actions it talks about.

When changing my toolbox I went along the guidelines that everything had to be more specific. One of the first things I changed was the analysis section. I wanted to describe each of my numerical summaries, graphs, and data analysis methods in depth. On the original toolbox I simply stated which of each I planned to use. When I edited the survey I talked what each different test would do. Doing this will ensure that if someone who does not know about statistics reads this then they will at least have some sort of understanding about what the terminology means. Also, I got to proofread through my toolbox and found that some of the graphs I used were the wrong ones. For example, instead of putting box plot I put dot plot, which would have been a major error if not corrected. Overall the toolbox editing went well, and I hope that my toolbox is up to the standards of my teacher.

(If you are confused about what a confidence interval is visit this website. I found it very informative. http://www.stats.gla.ac.uk/steps/glossary/confidence_intervals.html )

Millions of people have blogging sites that all deal with different things. The purpose of a blog is to inform viewers with commentary about different issues, events, and things. Blog entries are personal to every different blogger. Our teacher is going to be assigning us a rubric that will lay out rules and guidelines to follow when writing our blogs. So you may be wondering, what makes a good blog entry?

Every blog has a certain topic. The most important thing about the blog is that the blog entries on a blog must be relevant to the blog topic. If someone’s blog is about the NBA, than they shouldn’t be talking about politics or anything else in their entries. For example, if you look at the LSU Tigers sports NOLA blog, http://blog.nola.com/lsusports/, you can see that every blog entry is about LSU and nothing else. Also, blog entries must be very detailed, so the reader can clearly visualize and understand what the writer is talking about. Often bloggers write things in a way that is easy for them to understand, but sometimes they do not think of the reader. Just because a blogger can understand what he or she is writing does not mean that the reader will.

Another important aspect of blogging is to present your information in a visually pleasing way. No one is going to want to read something that is difficult to read or understand. The text in the blog should be a reasonable size and have a reasonable font. Also, the colors of the font and background should not conflict with one another. A balance of text, imagery, and other things should be used. You don’t want to have too many words, and you don’t want to have too many images. In summation, this is what I feel are the important factors of a good blog entry.

This week I completed the data analysis toolbox for my statistics project. My toolbox greatly helped me plan out my project. It also gave me a sense of a time line that I could go by to get my project done. The major aspects of my toolbox helped me outline and define the major aspects of my project. The four questions asked by the toolbox are: who are the individuals described by the data, what are the variables, in what variables is each variable recorded, why were the data gathered, and when, where, how and by whom were the data produced. These questions help to identify who the sample is, what you are trying to find out about the sample, the purpose of the project, and how you are to go about doing your project. For the survey I plan to record the people’s opinions by asking them to rate their views on different aspects of the stimulus package. Also, the toolbox helps you plan out what numerical summaries and graphs you will use, as well as how you will go about interpreting the data. I decided that I am going to use a five number summary, mean, and standard deviation to describe my data. The five number summary would help describe the spread of the data, and the mean and standard deviation would help describe where the data is centered. For the graphs I will use a bar graph and a normal probability plot. The bar graph will show frequency of the opinions, while the normal probability plot will help to show if the data is normal or not. To interpret the data I will simply analyze the numerical summaries and the graphs. In summation, the data analysis toolbox greatly helped me to organize and plan out my statistics project.

Experimental Design

Question:

How do the residents of the New Orleans area feel about the Obama administration’s bailout plan?

Objective:

To find out how the people of New Orleans feel about the economic stimulus plan that was passed by Congress.

Subjects:

The subjects of this survey will be the residents of New Orleans and its surrounding areas. I plan to survey people that I know. I will assemble a list of people I know of different ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds. Then, I would ask the individuals if they would be willing to partake in the survey. Of the remaining individuals I will use a SRS to randomly select 50 individuals.

Materials:

Paper for surveys
Lab top
Residents of New Orleans

Procedure:

1. I will make a list of people that I know.
2. Next, I will randomly select 50 individuals from this list.
3. Then, I will survey the individuals.
4. After, I will collect the surveys.
5. Following, I will analyze results.
6. Afterwards, I will make conclusions about the data.
7. Finally, I will present the data.

The topic I have chosen for my AP Statistics project is the opinion of people on the economic bailout package. Recently the Obama administration has passed a bailout plan that seeks to use money to shore up the damaged United States economy. Many people have many different opinions about this topic. Some feel that it is simply wasting tax payer’s money, while other feel is a necessary step towards recovery. I plan to survey residents of the New Orleans area and find out how they feel about this economic plan. The reason I have chosen this topic is because of its importance in today’s world. For the past month there has been extensive news coverage of this plan, showing just how important it is. This plan will likely make or break our economy for the next decade. The people’s opinions matter greatly about this issue, and I want to find out what they think about it.