Math 219 Project 1: Drinking Habits and Integrity of College Students

Problem

A student survey was conducted at a major university. Data were collected from a random sample of 239 undergraduate students, and the information that was collected included physical characteristics (such as height and handedness), study habits, academic performance and attitudes, and social behaviors. In this exercise, we will focus on exploring relationships between some of those variables.

Questions

Q1. What are the drinking habits of students at this university? In particular, what is the typical number of drinks a student has during a week? Do the data suggest that drinking is a problem in this university?

Q2. One of the statistics professors at this university uses the honor system when giving exams. If there were cheating going on during her exams, would the professor be likely to know about it?

Variables

Major– The students majors (L = Liberal Arts/Social Science or B = BSTEM)

Alcohol - Number of alcoholic beverages consumed in a typical week

Height - Self-reported height (in inches)

Cheat - Would you tell the instructor if you saw somebody cheating on an exam? (N=No, Y=Yes)

Understanding the problem

  1. Out of the first 10 students, how many drink 15 or more drinks per week? ______
  1. Out of the first 10 students, how many drinks does the tallest student drink? ______
  1. What is the height of the 1st male in the data file who would report on cheating?______
  1. Describe the following:

a. the population:

b. the sample:

c. the quantitative variables:

d. the categorical variables

5. Before analyzing the data and discovering the actual drinking habits of college students, try to predict what the data will show (use your experience and intuition).

6. Before analyzing the data and discovering how students will react if they witness cheating during an exam, try to predict what the data will show (use your experience and intuition).

Analyze the Data

7. Consider the question:“What are the drinking habits of students at this university? In particular, what is the typical number of drinks a student has during a week? Do the data suggest that drinking is a problem in this university?”

  1. Which variable(s) among those in the data set is relevant to the current question?
  1. What type of graph(s) are appropriate to analyze this variable?
  1. What meaningful numerical summaries should you find?
  1. Using RGuroo or other software create the appropriate graphical summaries you discussed above. Copy and paste them into a document and attach them to this project.
  1. Using the display and the numerical summaries, you need to describe the features of the distribution of the quantitative variable. Do that by describing the key features of the display and supporting your results with numerical measures. Keep in mind that the appropriate numerical measures for the current situation (measures of center and spread) will depend on the shape of the distribution? Interpret the results we got from our analyses in the context of the current question. (Please type this in the document you create for your graphs).

8. Consider the question: “One of the statistics professors at this university uses the honor system when giving exams. If there were cheating going on during her exams, would the professor be likely to know about it?”

  1. Which variable(s) among those in the data set is relevant to the current question?
  1. What type of graph(s) are appropriate to analyze this variable?
  1. What meaningful numerical summaries should you find?
  1. Using RGuroo or other software create the appropriate graphical summaries you discussed above. Copy and paste them into a document and attach them to this project.
  1. Using the display and the numerical summary, you need to describe the features of the categorical variable. Do that by describing they key feature of the display and by supporting your description with a numerical measure. Interpret the results we got from our analyses in the context of the current question. (Please type this in the document you create for your graphs).

9. Propose a question that might be researched using the analysis below.