Unit IV Scholarly Activity
Weight: 10% of course grade
Descriptive Statistics Analysis
Describe the Sun Coast data using the descriptive statistics tools discussed in the unit lesson. Establish whether assumptions are met to use parametric statistical procedures. Repeat the tasks below for each tab in the Sun Coast research study data set . Utilize the Unit IV Scholarly Activity template .
You will utilize the Microsoft Excel ToolPak. The links to the ToolPak are in the Excel ToolPak Links document .
Here are some of the items you will cover.
Produce a frequency distribution table and histogram.
Generate descriptive statistics table, including measures of central tendency (mean, median, and mode), kurtosis, and skewness.
Describe the dependent variable measurement scale as nominal, ordinal, interval, or ratio.
Analyze, evaluate, and discuss the above descriptive statistics in relation to assumptions required for parametric testing. Confirm whether the assumptions are met or are not met.
The title and reference pages do not count toward the page requirement for this assignment. This assignment should be no less than five pages in length, follow APA-style formatting and guidelines, and use references and citations as necessary.
Hello Everyone:
In Unit III, you developed your research design, or blueprint, for the research project. It is now time to begin working the plan by working with the data. In Unit IV, you will describe the data to determine if assumptions for parametric testing are met. Parametric tests are more powerful and superior to non-parametric tests, so it is desirable to use them if possible. However, data must meet a number of assumptions to be able to use parametric statistical procedures. Although assumptions vary by statistical procedure, nearly all statistical tests require the assumption of normality, or a normal distribution of data. When plotted, normality is represented by a bell-shaped curve. This is one of several assumptions you will test for in Unit IV.
The Unit IV study guide topics will include:
– Descriptive Statistics
– Assumption Testing
– Validity and Reliability
– Measurement Scales
Course Project Note
You will be working with the Sun Coast data in this unit. There are six data tabs in the spreadsheet and each tab relates to one of the six Sun Coast problems that have been identified. You will also need to install the Excel Toolpak add-in to your Excel program. The directions are in the Course Project Guidance Document. Do not worry about breaking anything. If you happen to delete data from the file, or make any other mistake, you can simply download a fresh data set.
When using the Excel ToolPak program to generate a histogram and descriptive statistics to test assumptions for parametric procedures it is only necessary to use the dependent variable(s). For example, you will only look to see if the dependent variable is normally distributed using a histogram. When creating the histogram, the bin range should be left empty. Please note that when using the t test and ANOVA the independent variables are the grouping variables (e.g. air, water, soil, training) while the dependent variables are the criterion you are measuring (e.g. ROI). You will always have at least two groups (e.g. pre-exposure lead vs. post-exposure lead), therefore, you will have at least two histograms and at least two sets of descriptive statistics to generate for these statistical procedures. If you have four groups, as in the case of the Sun Coast ANOVA, you will generate four histograms and four sets of descriptive statistics. Additionally, you will generate descriptive statistics for the dependent variables for each problem. The dependent variable data will populate the input ranges in Excel Toolpak.
Measurement Scales
To help facilitate the Unit IV discussion forum, here is a brief summary of the rules for determining the level of scale measurement.
Nominal: the data can only be categorized (e.g., married, single, divorced, widowed).
Ordinal: the data can be categorized and ranked (e.g., Rate your satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being low and 5 being high).
Interval: the data can be categorized and ranked and are evenly spaced (proportional distance), but no true zero (e.g., Survey of 100 average city temperatures in December).
Ratio: the data can be categorized and ranked, are evenly spaced, and have a true zero (e.g., Survey of 100 small business 2021 net profits).
In Closing
Please use the Ask the Professor forum for general questions so everyone can benefit from information sharing.
Have a great week!
Dr. Senft
