FOR SLCC (UTAH) SUMMER 2013 STUDENTS, IS THE NUMBER OF CONCURRENT CLASS CREDITS A

STUDENT TAKES IN HIGH SCHOOL RELATED TO THE NUMBER OF YEARS IT TAKES FOR A

STUDENT TO GRADUATE WITH THEIR ASSOCIATE’S DEGREE?

MATH 1040 – FINAL PROJECT

Research Question For SLCC (Utah) Summer 2013

students, is the number of concurrent class credits a student takes in high school related to the number of years it takes for a student to graduate with their Associate’s degree?

Study Design Cluster Sample

We separated the population into clusters of individual classes that were offered at SLCC during the summer of 2013 and then took a random sample of these clusters○ 1871 classes offered at SLCC (in Utah) during

summer of 2013○ Randomly chose 12 of these classes using a

random number generator

Choosing our Clusters 12 Randomly Generated

Numbers 16 18 389 450 510 778 1130 1219 1267 1345 1524 1544

12 Corresponding Classes BIOL 1010-01 BUS 1010-01 MEEN 2665-02 ART 1200-01 ART 1135-01 MATH 1995-03 COMM 1010-014 ECON 2010-003 NSG 1350-001 AMTT 1160-001 PSY 1010-009 ENGL 1010-014

Our SurveyWe gave this survey to EVERY INDIVIDUAL within each of our 12 clusters (classes).

The number of concurrent classes taken in high school was determined by the answer to question 1.

The number of years it takes for a student to graduate with their Associate’s Degree was determined by adding the numbers from question s 2 & 3.

Our Data Table (a small segment)

# of concurrent class credits taken in High School

# of years to graduate with Associates Degree

0 4

0 3

0 3

3 2.5

4 3.5

… …

STATISTICS # of concurrent class credits a student takes in HS

Mean: 2.2273 Standard Deviation: 3.8280 Five Number Summary: Min = 0, Q1 = 0, Median = 1, Q3 = 3, Max = 35 Range: 35 Mode: 0 Outliers: 8, 9, 9, 9, 10, 12, 12, 20, 20, 35

# of years for student to graduate with Associate’s degree Mean: 2.9005 Standard Deviation: 1.1104 Five Number Summary: Min = 1.3, Q1 = 2, Med = 3, Q3 = 3.5, Max = 11 Range: 9.7 Mode: 2 Outliers: 11

Frequency Histograms

Skewed Right Skewed Right

Relative Frequency Histograms

BoxPlots

# of concurrent classes a student took in HS

# of years it takes a student to graduate with Associate’s degree

CorrelationLinear Correlation Coefficient (r): - .1452

Equation for Line of Regression:

y = -.0421x + 2.9943

Analysis Our linear correlation coefficient:

(r) = - .1452Our r value means there is a very weak

negative correlation between the two variables○ As the number of concurrent class credits

goes up, the number of years it takes to obtain an Associate’s degree goes down

DF(degree of freedom) & Critical Value N = 1871 (population) n = 12 (sample)

df = n – 2 = 12 - 2 df = 10

Statistical Significance = .05

Statistical Significan

ce (p)

.05

… …

9 .602

10 .576

11 .553

… …

Critical value = .576

Reject or Fail to Reject the Null Hypothesis??? Null Hypothesis: There is no relationship between the

number of concurrent classes a student takes in high school and the time it takes a student to graduate with their Associate’s degree.

Is | r | > critical value? | r | = .1452 Critical value = .576

○ NO

Fail to reject null hypothesis

What does this mean??? Although there is a slight negative

correlation with an r value of -.1452 within our sample, there is no statistical evidence that this same correlation exists within our population.Far less than 95% of the relationship we

found among our sample of 12 classes will also exist in the population of 1871 classes.

Conclusion We fail to reject the null hypothesis. There is no

correlation/relationship between the number of concurrent class credits a student takes in high school and the number of years it takes a student to obtain their Associate’s degree for SLCC (Utah) summer 2013 students.

Problems/Difficulties Should have given the survey to more

than 12 out of the 1871 clusters to get a better sample of the population

Should have used ‘graduates’ instead of ‘current students’ to get accurate information

Several lurking variables

Participants Kiersten, Kimberly, Timothy, Markee

We all worked collaboratively on this. All parts were done and checked equally by all members of the group.