Statistics Project Proposal

John Someone, Kelly Other, Peter Doe

September 4, 2013

Project Summary

General Lifestyle of Hanover Students

We would like to investigate the lifestyle habits of Hanover students, and whether there is a significant difference in lifestyles between men and women. We would like to see how their eating habits relate to other lifestyle activities, like exercising.

Variables

Gender

This will be a categorical variable with values “Male” and “Female”. We would like to investigate the other variables in relation to this one.

Eating

This variable will describe how the students perceive their eating. It will be a categorical variable with possible values: “Very healthy”, “Somewhat healthy”, “Somewhat unhealthy”, “Mostly junk food”.

HoursExercise

This will be a quantitative variable measuring the average number of hours of exercise per week that the student gets.

Varsity

A categorical variable with values “Yes” and “No”, indicating whether the student is in a varsity team.

HoursClasswork

The number of hours per week the student spends overall on their classwork, including attending classes and labs, and doing homework.

Year

A categorical variable with values “Freshman”, “Sophomore”, “Junior” and “Senior”.

Weight

A quantitative variable, measured in pounds.

Expectations

• We expect that athletes will follow a more healthy diet, and that there won’t be much difference between males and females in that respect. Athletes will also tend to exercise more.
• We expect that students in their Junior and Senior year will tend to eat somewhat more healthy, since one might expect that people become more worried about their health habits with age.
• We expect that students that eat more healthy will tend to exercise more, reflecting their overall interest in being healthy.
• We expect that students who eat healthy will tend to have a smaller weight. There will likely be a difference between males and females here.

Data Collection

You should discuss in this section details on how you will attempt to collect your data. The ideal situation is that every student would have an equal chance of being selected. In addition you should think about how to make it convenient for them to respond, and what timeframe you will be working with.

Some things to consider for this section:

• What medium will you use? email, surveymonkey, handouts, interviews?
• What will be the timing? How much time will you give them to answer? If you are doing interviews around campus, how will you select what times you will do it at?
• What are some concerns you have about your method? Is there some part of the population that you might be missing/under-representing with your method? How might that affect your conclusions?

Survey

You should make this as close as possible to how it would look to those taking it.

1. What is your Gender?

   Options: Male/Female

2. How would you consider your eating habits?

   Options:

   • Mostly junk food
   • Somewhat unhealthy
   • Somewhat healthy
   • Very healthy

3. How many hours per week on average do you spend exercising?

   Fill in number

4. Are you participating in a varsity team?

   Options: Yes / No

5. How many hours per week do you spend on your classes? (including attending classes, labs, doing homework etc)

   Fill in number

6. What year are you at currently?

   Options:

   • First Year
   • Sophomore
   • Junior
   • Senior

7. What is your weight, in pounds?

   Fill in number