431 Project B Instructions for Fall 2021

What is on this Website

• The Data: Instructions on getting data for Project B
  • You’ll either use data from NHANES, or from some other source.
• Information on Registering your Project B
  • This involves completing a Google Form by Monday 2021-11-22 at NOON (the Monday before Thanksgiving) as is specified on the Course Calendar.
  • Registering your project involves:
    • specifying whether or not you are working with a partner
    • telling us a little about the data source (NHANES or other) you plan to use
    • providing options for when you can give your oral presentation
• Instructions for Study 1
  • You’ll find information on required Study 1 analyses
  • We also provide detailed Study 1 report specifications
  • You’ll also find a Study 1 example report
• Instructions for Study 2
  • You’ll find information on required Study 2 analyses
  • We also provide detailed Study 2 report specifications
  • You’ll also find a Study 2 example report
• Self-Evaluation Form for your Project B
  • This involves completing a Google Form, due December 10. If you work with a partner, each of you submits this form separately.
• A Checklist of the tasks that need to be accomplished for Project B, which also includes some details on the oral presentation you’ll give to Dr. Love on December 6, 7 or 9.
• The top menu also provides links to contact us, and to the 431 home page.

All of the material you need (from a statistical and coding perspective) to do Project B has been or will be covered in our first 24 classes, as well as in the Course Notes and Labs 1-7.

Project B Deliverables

1. You will complete a Registration Form to obtain my approval for your plan, let me know if you’re working with a partner, and schedule your oral presentation, by the deadline on the Course Calendar, which is Monday 2021-11-22 at NOON.
2. You (and your partner, if applicable) will present your project on December 6, 7 or 9 to Dr. Love in his office. Details on the Oral Presentation are found in the Checklist part of the menu above.
3. You will build two R Markdown and HTML reports (separate reports for Study 1 and Study 2) due at noon Friday 2021-12-10.
   • If you’re not using NHANES data, you’ll also submit your data to Dr. Love at that time.
4. Finally, you will complete a Self-Evaluation form, as you did in Project A, also due 2021-12-10 at Noon.

Partnerships?

You can work alone, or with one other person on this project. If you work as a pair, you will commit to that when you register for the project. Each of you will receive the team grade for the project reports, and an individual grade for the other components of the project.

The Data

You will work with the same data source for Study 1 and for Study 2, and these data will be developed either from NHANES or from another public source that you identify.

• You will find detailed instructions regarding the use of NHANES data for Project B here.
• If you want to use other data, you’ll need it to meet some specifications we’ll describe, and you’ll have to get Dr. Love’s permission when you register your project.

Study 1

• Study 1 is about making descriptive and exploratory comparisons and summaries of data. It’s not about building sophisticated statistical models.
• You will ingest, merge and clean the data in R, then select variables to complete any four out of five potential analyses, as described in these instructions.
  • You can do all five analyses if you like (as preparation for Quiz 3, for instance) but you will only present four in your report. No bonus credit for doing all five analyses.
• Dr Love has developed Study 1 Report Specifications and a Study 1 Example Report which should guide your eventual submitted Study 1 report.

Study 2

• Study 2 is about building a model and making predictions. You will complete all elements of a data science project designed to create a statistical model for a quantitative outcome, then use it for prediction, and assess the quality of those predictions.
• Study 2 involves working with data from the same source that you used for Study 1. Again, you will work through all cleaning and data management requirements in your Study 2 report.
  • Study 2 involves the prediction of a quantitative outcome using a key predictor and some additional predictors in two linear regression models, and then comparing those two models.
  • All of the material you need (from a statistical and coding perspective) to do these analyses has been or will be covered in our first 24 classes and in the Course Notes.
• Dr Love has developed Study 2 Report Specifications and a Study 2 Example Report which should guide your eventual submitted Study 2 report.

Grading

Project B will be graded by Dr. Love on a scale from 0-100.

• The two study reports (Study 1 and Study 2) due December 10 at noon are worth a combined 50 points.
• The oral presentation on December 6, 7 or 9 is worth 40 points. Details on the Oral Presentation are found in the Checklist.
• The self-evaluation (also due December 10 at noon) is worth 10 points.
• Late work on Project B is unacceptable.

Dr. Love cannot promise to provide meaningful feedback on your Project B work. The grading timeline is simply too tight on my end, so I apologize in advance.

Questions?

If you have questions, let us know about them on Piazza using the projectB folder, or speak with Dr. Love before or after class, or discuss them with the TAs during office hours.

This page was last updated: 2021-12-05 21:40:05.