Hypothesis Testing Project
In this project you will conduct a hypothesis test of your own. You will formulate a problem, collect/obtain data, perform calculations, and type up your
results.
The problem:
First, you will choose a parameter for your hypothesis test, such as a mean or a proportion. With that parameter find some claim of which you are doubtful of,
to be your null hypothesis, and what you believe to be true for testing. I.e., greater than the claim, less than the claim, or simply not equal to the claim. The
claim that you want to test, greater than, less than, or not
equal will be the problem you are looking at for the project. Try to choose a problem that is meaningful to you, i.e., not simply looking at how many heads
obtained when flipping a coin.
Collecting/Obtaining data:
Second, you will collect or obtain the data to test the problem aiming for a sample size of at least 30. Depending on what you are looking you may need to
collect the data yourself or obtain the data from a reputable source. I.e., if you are looking at something sports related obtaining data from ESPN might work
for your problem. If you collect the data yourself, try your best to make it as random of a sample as you can. It can be tough to get a truly random sample so
attempt to get the sample as random collected as you can.
Some examples of sources you could look at for obtaining data are ESPN, data.gov US, healthdata.gov, Bureau of Labor Statistics, gapminder (if looking at
data by countries), etc.
Perform Calculations:
Using your data, calculate the mean and standard deviation. State your significance level; the common significance levels are 0.01, 0.02, 0.05, 0.1. State
whether your alternate hypothesis is
looking at left-tailed, right-tailed, or two-tailed. Calculate the p-value for your hypothesis test using the data. Then state your conclusion based on the p-value
and your significance level.
Outline for the typed-up project:
1) The introduction: [25 pts]
Describe what your project is about. What are you looking at and why?
State your null and alternative hypothesis. How did you come up with your hypothesis?
Explain how you collected or obtained your data. Did you encounter any issues
collecting your data?
2) The data: [20 pts]
Present the data that you collected or obtained. It can be a list of values or a table of
values. Make sure your sample size is at least 30.
3) The calculations: [30 pts]
Find the mean and standard deviation of your data. State your significance level.
State your test statistic, i.e., is your hypothesis looking at a mean or a proportion and what value.
State whether your alternate hypothesis is looking at left-tailed, right-tailed, or two-tailed.
Calculate the p-value for your hypothesis test. How does your p-value compare to your significance level?
4) Conclusion: [25 pts]
Based on your p-value and significance level, state the results of your hypothesis test.
Do you reject the null hypothesis or fail to reject the null hypothesis?
What does this result mean for the problem you were looking at?
Indicate any ways you think your study could be improved if done anything. Anything
you would do different?
If you encountered any issues collecting your data, what might
you do to try and prevent that issue from happening again?
What did you learn from your hypothesis test?
Was there anything interesting or
surprising that you encountered during the project?
An Example of how you might formulate your problem/hypothesis and then find your
data:
You want to find out if the Baltimore Orioles have improved in runs allowed per game.
You find that in 2018, the Orioles allowed an average of 5.51 runs per game. Your null
hypothesis would be H0: µ= 5.51. And you want to test if they have improved by