Statistical investigation into pupils at Mayfield high school

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STASTICAL INVESTIGATION INTO PUPILS AT MAYFIELD HIGH SCHOOL

AIM

In this investigation I have set out to explore two hypotheses regarding secondary data supplied to me concerning pupils at Mayfield High School in years 7 to 11.  The secondary data supplied included data on a range of issues including each pupil’s weight, their IQ and the average number of hours each pupil watched TV per week.  My hypotheses below explore specifically these elements from the secondary data supplied to me.

Hypotheses 1 – Correlation between time spent watching TV and weight

My hypothesis is that there will be a connection between the average number of hours spent watching television and the weight of each pupil.  My prediction is that there will be a positive correlation: i.e. that the heavier pupils will be those who spend more hours watching TV.

The reason for my prediction is that I believe that more time spent in front of the television means that there is less time for activity and, therefore, TV watchers are more likely to put on weight.  I also think that TV watchers are more likely to eat snacks and junk food while watching TV, which would also result in weight gain.

In my conclusion below, I consider outside factors which I have not taken into account in the investigation of this hypothesis which may influence my results.  Such factors are: height, gender, age, method of travel.

Hypotheses 2 – Correlation between time spent watching TV and IQ

My hypothesis is that there will be a connection between the average number of hours spent watching TV and the IQ of each pupil.  My prediction is that the more TV watched the higher the IQ.

The reason for my prediction in this hypothesis is that I believe that watching TV makes a person more knowledgeable.  There are a lot of television programmes which provide a high level of information such as the News, documentaries, quiz shows, and even reality TV.  People watching these programmes absorb a lot of information and are encouraged to think about what they are watching.

In my conclusion on the results of this hypothesis below, I consider outside factors which I have not taken into account which may influence the results, e.g.: age, and type of programme watched.

METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION

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Stratified Sample

The entire secondary data supplied to me comprises 1183 pupils and 31941 datum points. This data is too large for me to handle in this investigation.  I have, therefore, decided to analyse a sample of the secondary data of the pupils from Mayfield High School.

I have decided that an appropriate sample is 50 pupils as it is a more manageable set of data, large enough to be a fair representation, but small enough to handle.  I considered that, since both my hypotheses may be affected by age, it was appropriate to use a stratified ...

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