Students will work together or in a group of up to 3 students to design and conduct an experiment to answer specific research questions. The statistical analysis should require either the comparison of 2 or more populations or a regressions analysis. The project report should be not more than 2 printed pages of text (not including plots and figures) and should (1) clearly state the purpose of the experiment, (2) describe the design and conduct of the experiment, (3) detail the statistical analysis, and (4) draw appropriate conclusions. The report should provide sufficient information for me to conclude that the data was collected in an appropriate manner, that proper statistics were used, any assumptions about the data were checked, and appropriate conclusions were drawn to address the stated purpose of the experiment.
For students working in a group, each student must be present and contribute to the design and conduct of the experiment, as well as to the statistical analysis and report write-up. Only one report needs to be turned in, but everyone needs to make a significant contribution. Part of a student's grade on the project will be determined by a peer evaluation of the student's contribution.
Some examples of experiments that might be appropriate.