Statistics Spring Projects 2005

Does a higher body mass index (BMI) slow down the average teenager?  Brian, Michael, and Greg collect and analyze data to find out (Michael skipped the photo op).

Does classical music help students perform better on a math test?  Stephen and Aria (with cooperation from several subbie students) designed and conducted an experiment to investigate.

Families become more stable as children get older, at least according to the research hypothesis of Alejandra and Emma.  They devised a measure of stability, known as the "mobility index," and compared younger Uni students to older Uni students.

Why does Mr. Russell use pink paper for tests?  Alyssa and Casey set out to investigate whether colored paper affects student test performance (thanks to cooperation from Ms. Plisch and Mr. Sutton, and their Advanced Topics and U.S. History students)

Do people blink more during dialogue or action scenes?  Ben and Andrew designed a "matched pairs" experiment to investigate (not exactly an original idea... see projects from 2004... but a worthy experiment none the less).  They cornered their "victims" in the Mac lab.

Does a disclaimer about sexual abstinence affect student definition of abstinence?  Annie and Emily investigated whether students considered certain behaviors to fall within the bounds of "abstinence" if students were cautioned about sexually transmitted infections as part of the survey.

Music soothes the savage beast.  Mickey and Anna investigated whether type of "background" music affected performance time on a concentration task (mazes).  The contrasted a classical harp piece and a "gangsta rap" piece.  No nerves were damaged in the experiment (they claim).

Baseball's "Spring Training:" can a team's performance during spring training predict their success in the regular season?  Baseball fanatics "The Bens" designed an experiment to investigate (let's hope they cited their data sources correctly... refer to the library's web site for details!).

Speaking of sports, basketball fiends Hillary and Molly indulged their love of the game by investigating whether "assist" averages are good predictors for success in the NCAA tournaments.  They were as disappointed by the last game in this year's tournament as most other fans of the Fighting Illini.