Term Project Part 6

Andrew Gibbons

!
After 7 and 1/2 weeks of my first online class its nice to look back and feel like I
accomplished something, along with attaining great knowledge that I hope will remain with me
for a long time. Among the many great
learning experiences Ive had in this class is
the term project we all got to participate in.
We were assigned groups and given specific
tasks throughout the semester. As the semester
progressed, we learned more advanced
principles to incorporate into our project.
Perhaps I should just call it a project though,
because really, it is a statistical experiment.
!
The experiment is this: each member
of the class was assigned to purchase a 2.17
ounce bag or original flavor Skittles. We were
to count up each color and report the data to
our teacher to organize onto the table to the
right.

!
We were given multiple parts to this
term project. In Part 2, we were assigned to
create a pie chart and a histogram to illustrate
percentages of colors within the total of bags,
as well as the frequency of the total number of
candies in the sampled bags.

!
We answered questions
involving our personal
gatherings regarding this info.

!
We continued adding complexity to our
experiment by creating more diagrams to help us
make conclusions regarding the distribution of
our data, and answering more questions to
demonstrate our understanding.

Yep, as you can tell, there were some nasty outliers in

our data!

!
We were required to define vocabulary
for data like the words Quantitative and
Categorical. Thankfully Ive already done that
part, it was hard for me to understand at first,
but it makes sense now!

!
We did portions as individuals and groups. I enjoyed learning in both ways; they brought
out different ways of investigating. It wasnt until the time I did the individual portion of part 4
(below) that I started really understanding how distributions work and the meaning of inferential
statistics.

!
The group portion of part 4 was a
process for me. It was a culmination of the
stat crunching. We were to make inferences
using confidence intervals on what the
parent population parameters are, based on
our gatherings.

!
I felt pretty confident knowing how
to gather sample statistics, but what I didnt
realize until taking a closer look is that a
normal distribution demands that there are
no major outliers. Our data has one really
bad outlier. Correction was made after
turning in the assignment, although, Im not
sure that I learned how to make inferential
statements given our small sample size.

!
Finally, we were to sum up our
experience in words. I wrote a one page
essay, on what I learned from the term
project and how I feel it applies to the
real world.

!
In short, this project helped me to
grasp how the hypothetical and
experimental process takes place. This
hands on experience was instrumental in
my understanding of statistics, and this
class has unveiled a desire in me to seek
information using statistical research. I
gather that statistical data can tell us
stories about the world around us. I look
forward to continuing to learn using
these tools!