Question

introductory survey project - scheel - statistics - room 404

1. choose a main topic that your survey will be about.
2. create 3 questions that are related to your main topic. one question must be designed to elicit a quantitative (number) answer. the other two questions should elicit a qualitative answer (one should be a true/false, yes/no type question. the other should be an abcd multiple choice type question).
3. survey a minimum of 40 people. you may need to survey people outside this class. each person should respond to all 3 of your survey questions. record a tally sheet complete with names of those surveyed and their answers.
4. for the quantitative question, find the mean answer value. for the qualitative questions, find the percent of answers in each category.
5. display the data from the surveys graphically. use pie charts, bar graphs, dot plots, or any other graph type of your choice.
6. write a short summary paper of your results (approx. a page) as if you were writing an article for a newspaper or magazine, explaining your survey project. were your results surprising or expected? do you think your results would be representative of larger population groups? do you think your results would be different if you surveyed a different group of people? why or why not. in discussing the answers to these writing prompts, cite the statistics you calculated from step four.

Explanation:

Step1: Choose a main topic

Let's choose "Coffee - drinking habits of students".

Step2: Create 3 questions

Quantitative question

How many cups of coffee do you drink per week?

True - false/yes - no question

Do you drink coffee before an exam?

Multiple - choice question

Which type of coffee do you prefer? A. Espresso B. Latte C. Cappuccino D. Americano

Step3: Survey 40 people

This is a practical step that requires going out and collecting data from 40 individuals, recording their names and answers on a tally sheet.

Step4: Calculate statistics

For quantitative question

Let the number of cups of coffee per week for $n = 40$ people be $x_1,x_2,\cdots,x_{40}$. The mean $\bar{x}=\frac{\sum_{i = 1}^{40}x_i}{40}$.

For qualitative questions

For the yes - no question, count the number of yes ($y$) and no ($n_y$) answers. The percentage of yes answers is $\frac{y}{40}\times100\%$ and no answers is $\frac{n_y}{40}\times100\%$. For the multiple - choice question, count the number of answers for each option $A$ ($a$), $B$ ($b$), $C$ ($c$), $D$ ($d$). The percentage of $A$ answers is $\frac{a}{40}\times100\%$, for $B$ is $\frac{b}{40}\times100\%$, for $C$ is $\frac{c}{40}\times100\%$ and for $D$ is $\frac{d}{40}\times100\%$.

Step5: Display data graphically

For the quantitative question, a dot - plot or a histogram can be used to show the distribution of the number of cups of coffee per week. For the yes - no question, a pie chart can show the proportion of yes and no answers. For the multiple - choice question, a bar graph can display the percentage of each option.

Step6: Write a summary paper

In the summary paper, report the main topic "Coffee - drinking habits of students". Present the mean number of cups of coffee per week from step 4 for the quantitative question. Report the percentages of yes/no and multiple - choice answers. Discuss if the results were surprising or expected. Analyze if the sample of 40 students is representative of a larger student population. Consider if the results would change with a different group of students, citing the calculated statistics.

Answer:

Main topic: Coffee - drinking habits of students
Quantitative question: How many cups of coffee do you drink per week?
True - false/yes - no question: Do you drink coffee before an exam?
Multiple - choice question: Which type of coffee do you prefer? A. Espresso B. Latte C. Cappuccino D. Americano
(Note: The actual data collection, calculation, graph - making and paper - writing are practical tasks that need to be carried out after surveying 40 people)