Supplement Undergraduate Projects on Descriptive Statistic

Supplement Undergraduate Projects on Descriptive Statistic

The following project allows flexibility for both the instructor and the student. This is better for an older
undergraduate group or an MBA group. Projects two and three are intended for a freshman or
sophomore level course.

Project One:

Part I - Setup: Choose one of these cross-sectional Excel data sets from LearningStats:
 Cities > Home Prices.xls (home price by year)
 Cities > PerCapitaIncome.xls (income by year)
 Consumer > HomeData.xls (home price by zip code or city)
 Finance > ATMTransactions.xls (by day of week or hour of day)
 Finance > CEOCompensation.xls (compensation by year)
 Health > EmergencyRoomCensus.xls (arrivals by time of day or day of week)
 Health > HealthExpendituresByNation.xls (compare 1993 and 2003)
 Sports > Baseball2001.xls (by division and/or league)
 Sports > FootballBowlGames.xls (win margin by bowl).
Part II - Analysis: (a) Use software (Excel, MegaStat, Visual Statistics, and/or MINITAB) to prepare
and interpret descriptive statistics (central tendency, dispersion, shape) and visual displays (e.g., box
plots, dot plots, histograms). (b) Identify unusual observations. (c) Prepare a report that summarizes
and explains your findings. Include an executive synopsis on a separate page. Bottom line: Compare
the groups, noting differences and similarities.

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Supplement Undergraduate Projects on Descriptive Statistic

Project Two: This is an individual project and is graded on an individual basis. Collaboration with a
classmate is considered a violation of the honor code. You may discuss how tofind the data with your
classmates but you may not work together when analyzing the data and writing the report. Your
instructor and any of the recitation leaders will gladly answer any questions you might have.

Objective
The objective of this project is for you to show your ability to describe data using both graphical and
numerical summaries. You will use data on fuel prices from the AAA website found at:
http://www.aaa.com/aaa/006/index.html?zip=80304. Click on the link to News and Safety to find the
information requested below. You may have to search around to find the information requested. Part of
the challengeyou will face in writing this report is the need to be persistent in finding the right
information. If after trying very, very hard you are still unsuccessful, please stop by our office for help.

Instructions
This project should be written as a technical business report.Chapter 1 in the textbook explains what a
technical report looks like. Keep in mind that this is a descriptive report and should be short and concise.
You need to include a brief executive summary, followed by the body of the report, and ending with a
conclusion. Your response to each part below will include the appropriate graph and a paragraph or two
explaining your results. Do not include the raw data sets. Your report should not be more than 3 pages.
It should be submitted as a Word document with the graphs embedded in the text.

Do not include the instructions on the assignment (this page) in your technical report. Create a response
as if you were providing a report for your manager. Be sure to reference the website in your report and
the date on which you downloaded the data as well as any other references you used in your responses.

Part 1: Find the state by state average fuel prices for regular unleaded gasoline. Create a histogram of
the fuel prices. Calculate the mean, median, standard deviation, and coefficient of variation. Show the
histogram and the four numerical summaries. Describe the central tendency and dispersion of the state
by state fuel prices, referring to both the histogram and the mean, median, and standard deviation
calculations. Describe the shape of the distribution noting any possible outliers. Explain the presence of
any data point that appears to be an outlier. (This may involve a bit of research.)

Part 2: The state by state fuel data set includes prices for both premium unleaded and diesel fuel. Create
a scatterplot with diesel fuel on the horizontal axis and premium unleaded fuel on the vertical axis.
Explain the observed relationship between the two variables, again noting any possible outliers and
explaining their presence.

Part 3: Find the Colorado weekly unleaded gas prices for the past 13 weeks. Create a line chart showing
the gas price time series. Describe the trend observed and explain any obvious changes in the trend seen
on the line chart.

The distribution of points is:

Executive summary: 2 pointsPart 1: 2 pointsPart 2: 2 pointsPart 3: 2 points
Grammar, neatness, proper sentence structure, following instructions: 2 points
Total: 10 points

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Supplement Undergraduate Projects on Descriptive Statistic

Project Three: This is an individual project and is graded on an individual basis. Collaboration with a
classmate is considered a violation of the honor code. You may discuss how toanalyze the data with
your classmates but you may not work together when actually working on Excel or writing the report.
Your instructor and any of the recitation leaders will gladly answer any questions you might have.

Objective
The objective of this project is for you to show your ability to describe data using both graphical and
numerical summaries.

Instructions
This project should be written as a technical business report. Chapter 1 in the textbook explains what a
technical report looks like. Keep in mind that this is a descriptive report and should be short and concise.
You need to include a brief executive summary, followed by the body of the report, and ending with a
conclusion. Your response to each part below will include the appropriate graph and a paragraph or two
explaining your results. Do not include the raw data sets. Your report should not be more than 3 pages.
It should be submitted as a Word document with the graphs embedded in the text.

Do not include the instructions on the assignment (this page) in your technical report. Create a response
as if you were providing a report for your manager. Be sure to reference the website in your report and
the date on which you downloaded the data as well as any other references you used in your responses.

Ted’s Dogs and Burgers has the food contract to service the university’s sporting events. In order to
evaluate customer satisfaction and find areas for improvement, Ted collected sample data from three
different sporting events: volleyball, basketball, and football. This data is included below. As Ted’s
intern, he has asked you to prepare a report that shows the most frequent complaints, the percentages of
the complaints, suggestions on which areas to tackle first, along with suggested improvements.

Part 1: Make a Pareto chart of the complaint data showing the frequencies and cumulative percentages.
The complaint categories are: too much time in line, food cold, no vegetarian choice, not enough
selection of food items, too much ice in sodas, food too expensive, no chili for hot dogs, server rude, and
dirty counter.Write a two or three paragraph report with suggestions on which areas to tackle first and
suggested improvements.

Part 2: One of the most frequent complaints was that the waiting time in line was too long. Ted
conducted a further study and observed waiting times for 75 customers at various games. Ted has asked
you to summarize the data and prepare a report. Create a histogram showing the distribution on time.
Calculate appropriate numerical summaries to show central tendency and dispersion. Write a brief report
explaining the graph and statistics and pointing out any unusual observations from the data.

The distribution of points is:

Executive summary: 2 points Part 1: 4 points Part 2: 4 points
Up to 2 points may be deducted for improper grammar, sloppy report, improper sentence structure, or
failing to follow instructions.
Total: 10 points

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Supplement Undergraduate Projects on Descriptive Statistic

Complaint Complaint Complaint Complaint Complaint Complaint Complaint Complaint Complaint Complaint
not enough
too much too much ice food too selection of too much
time in line food cold food cold in sodas food cold expensive food items food cold food cold time in line
no no no no no
vegetarian vegetarian too much vegetarian vegetarian too much too much vegetarian
choice choice time in line choice choice time in line food cold time in line choice food cold
no no no
vegetarian vegetarian vegetarian too much too much
choice choice choice food cold food cold food cold time in line food cold time in line food cold
no no no
vegetarian too much too much too much too much vegetarian too much too much ice vegetarian
choice time in line food cold time in line time in line time in line choice time in line in sodas choice
no no no
vegetarian vegetarian too much vegetarian too much too much
food cold food cold choice choice time in line choice food cold time in line food cold time in line
not enough no
too much selection of too much too much too much too much ice too much vegetarian
time in line food items time in line time in line food cold time in line food cold in sodas time in line choice
not enough no no
selection of vegetarian too much too much vegetarian too much too much no chili for food too
food items choice food cold time in line time in line choice time in line time in line hot dogs expensive
no no
too much ice too much ice vegetarian too much too much too much ice too much too much ice vegetarian
in sodas in sodas choice time in line food cold time in line in sodas time in line in sodas choice
no no not enough no no
too much ice vegetarian too much vegetarian too much ice selection of vegetarian vegetarian
in sodas choice time in line choice in sodas food cold food items choice server rude choice
not enough no not enough no no
selection of vegetarian selection of vegetarian too much vegetarian
food items server rude choice food items choice food cold food cold time in line choice food cold
no not enough no
food too too much food too too much ice vegetarian too much selection of vegetarian
expensive time in line expensive in sodas food cold dirty counter choice time in line food items choice
no not enough no
too much too much vegetarian selection of too much vegetarian too much
time in line food cold food cold time in line choice food items time in line food cold choice time in line
no no not enough not enough
too much vegetarian vegetarian too much ice selection of too much selection of too much
time in line choice choice food cold food cold in sodas food items time in line food items time in line
no no not enough
too much ice no chili for vegetarian vegetarian selection of too much
food cold in sodas hot dogs food cold food cold choice choice food items food cold time in line
not enough no not enough
too much selection of vegetarian too much food too selection of too much too much
time in line food cold food cold food items choice time in line expensive food items time in line time in line
no not enough not enough
vegetarian too much too much ice selection of too much selection of
choice food cold food cold time in line in sodas food cold food items food cold time in line food items
no not enough no
too much vegetarian selection of too much vegetarian no chili for too much too much
time in line choice food items time in line choice hot dogs food cold food cold time in line time in line
no not enough no no no not enough no
vegetarian selection of vegetarian vegetarian vegetarian too much selection of too much vegetarian
choice food items choice choice choice time in line food items time in line food cold choice
no
too much too much too much too much food too vegetarian too much
time in line time in line time in line food cold time in line expensive food cold choice time in line food cold
Too much no no
too much time in line too much too much ice vegetarian vegetarian
time in line food cold food cold food cold food cold time in line in sodas choice choice

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Supplement Undergraduate Projects on Descriptive Statistic

Waiting Times are in minutes.

Wait Wait Wait Wait Wait

Time Time Time Time Time
6.3 9.8 7.2 7 3.2
3.3 1.5 4.4 6 2.3
5.4 3.6 4.9 3.2 4.3
8.4 7.6 8.3 3.3 1.1
6 5.8 5.4 8.5 4.2
8.9 4.6 5.1 6.2 7.7
3.3 2.4 4.1 3.4 5
6 6.6 5.2 5.2 4.3
4.4 5.6 9.7 8.2 3.4
6.7 4.3 5.7 8.9 8.4
7.5 4.9 1.6 4.4 7.3
4.4 7.3 5.7 5.4 4.9
6.6 4.2 3.8 7.6 2.5
1.4 4.9 6.6 3.4 8.1
6.2 4.3 7.4 4.3 7.1