Your final project will take the form of a short (~2 page) report on data analyses you design to answer a substantive question of your choosing. You have three options from which to choose for posing your substantive question.
Pose a question that can be answered using the 2012 US Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS).
Pose a question that can be answered using NHANES.
Pose a question about how a statistical method performs in an atypical situation. Answer this question using a Monte Carlo study.
Questions coming from options 1 and 2 should be similar in scope to a homework question and phrased as inferential questions as described in problem set 5, question 1. For instance, if using NHANES,
Are people in the US more likely to drink water on a weekday than on a weekend day?
is a better question than,
What fraction of people reported drinking water on weekends and weekdays in the 2006-2008 NHANES sample?
Questions posed from option 3 should be specific and relevant to actual statistical practice. Here is an example for option 3:
When comparing the means for two groups with paired data, it is standard to use a paired t-test. Sometimes, however, researchers use two sample t-tests instead either by mistake or for some other reasons such as because the pairings are unknown. How does this impact the type 1 error and power?
Before beginning your project, submit a proposal to me by email detailing:
Please submit an initial proposal to me by Tuesday, December 1 at 5pm and aim to have your proposal approved prior to Friday December 4 at 5pm. I welcome proposals over the break. I will provide feedback on your proposal to help you design an interesting but feasible question.
Your report should be approximately two pages in length if printed and no more than 3 pages long. You should included at least 1 but no more than 3 tabular or graphical elements. The word count for the report should be between 200 and 600 words.
Organize your report into the following sections:
Initial Proposal Due before: Tuesday December 1, 5pm.
Approved proposal by: Friday December 4, 5pm.
Draft due: Monday December 7, 5pm.
Peer review due: Thursday December 10, 5pm.
Final project due: Tuesday December 15, 6pm.
Submit drafts to Canvas as an html or pdf document with an embedded link to a Git repo containing your analysis files.
If you using the CBECS data, be aware that he replicate weights work slightly differently than those in the RECS data. Refer to this document.