MAT 1100 Week 12 Project
Spring 2021
Gribben

Project Objectives.
Recognize and use appropriate graphs and numerical summaries to de-
scribe the distribution of categorical and numerical data.
Understand that responses to statistical questions should take variabil- ity into account.
Understand distributions for quantitative data are compared with re- spect to similarities and differences in center, variability (spread), and shape.

Part 1 Reading the Syllabus
For your Kinesiology class, the instructor is using the following grading scheme:
Homework 25%, Midterm Exam 20%, Project 15%, Attendance 5% , Final Exam 35%
1.1. If there are 10 Homework assignments over the course of the semester, what percentage does each Homework assignment contribute to your final grade? (Assume all homework assignments have the same number of points.)
1.2. If you raise your Midterm Exam grade by 8 points (out of 100) doing test corrections, how much will that raise your final grade?
1.3. The instructor gives the class an extra credit assignment which will allow you to raise your Midterm grade by 8 points (out of 100) or raise your Final Exam grade by 10 points (out of 200). Which choice will improve your final grade the most? Make sure to give an explanation that tells me how you made the choice.
1.4. Going into the Final Exam, you are hoping to get an A- in the course, which requires getting an overall 90% without rounding; having a grade of 89.9 wont be enough. If you have attended every class, averaged an 93% on the Homework, scored an 85% on the Midterm, and a 94% on the Project, what is the minimum score (out of 100) you need on the Final Exam to get an A- in the course?
Stretch Goal. You scored a 96% on the Final Exam, congratulations! Is there a reasonable way to change the weights of the different grades in the course such that your overall grade would be a 96% (given your scores on other portions from 1.4), giving you a chance at an A+?

Part 2 Sampling/Polling
In order to answer the questions in this part of the project, you need to complete a poll of a given population with 9000 people to ask them whether they prefer the color Green or the color Gold. Your group should send me a list of 40 random numbers from 1 to 9000 by Wednesday at 9pm, and I will send you the results of your poll the color that each person prefers along with whether they reside in MD or PA. Think about how you would like to generate your 40 numbers and send me your list in one column of a spreadsheet and I will add a column to your spreadsheet with your results.
2.1. What are the results of your poll? That is, what percentage of your respondents preferred Green, and what percentage preferred Gold? Which color was preferred more?
2.2. Go to https://www.pollfish.com/margin-of-error-calculator/ and determine the margin of error for your poll using a 90% confidence level. What did you enter for Population size and Sample size, and what did the pollfish calculator tell you was the resulting margin of error?
2.3. Given the results of your poll, and the margin of error from 2.2, do you feel comfortable that your poll has determined whether the overall population prefers one color to the other? Explain why or why not, using the data you have collected. Your explanation should make it clear that your group understands what a margin of error is in the context of this poll.
2.4. Each response to the poll (number) is designated with either a MD or PA; the entire population we are surveying is from either Maryland or Pennsylvania. In fact, exactly 50% of the population we surveyed is from each state. Recalculate the poll results in your responses from each state to find the color preferences from each state.
2.5. One way we could make sure our poll is more representative of the color preference for each state is to weight your poll numbers such that your responses represent each state equally. How do your poll numbers change if you weight the two states equally?
2.6 I used a simple rule to determine whether the respondent preferred Green or Gold and whether they were from MD or PA. Make a conjecture about what rules were used to determine color preference and the state they were from. Look for patterns in the number of the respondent and their responses you got back. (A conjecture is a best guess based on patterns so no right or wrong answers here just you best guesses.)