Purpose:
Students will conduct one brief research exercise that will be written up as a research report using APA style.
Content of the Paper:
Title Page
1. Abstract - Brief summary of the study. This should describe:
a. The problem under investigation, in one sentence, if possible
b. The participants (in this case it would describe the soup)
c. Essential features of the study method
d. The basic findings
e. Conclusions and implications or applications
2. Introduction - one to two paragraph introductions. Develop a research question and hypotheses regarding the data collected from the commissary. Be sure to specifically address answer the following:
- What is the research question? Specifically, what is the researcher interested in determining from this study?
- What are the hypotheses being tested? Describe both the null and alternative hypothesis for each of the four nutrients.
- What are the explanatory/independent and response/dependent variables?
3. Method - brief description including procedures and information collected.
- Are the samples independent or dependent? Please explain.
- How was the data collected? (ex. How was the data obtained for the samples?) Note: the data was collected from nutrition fact labels from selected soup cans.
- What type of variable is the explanatory/independent variable? Categorical or Quantitative?
- What type of variable are the response/dependent variables? Categorical or Quantitative?
4. Results - describe the statistical analysis used and present the results in both statistical and graphic formats. Specifically, answer each of the following questions:
a. What are the results of the exploratory data analysis? Please calculate and provide the results of the means, standard deviations, and sample sizes for the groups for each of the four nutrients. Present information in a table.
b. What statistical technique(s) was/were selected to assess the hypotheses? Why was it/they the appropriate one(s) to use?
c. What are the requirements for the specific statistical technique selected? Does the data meet these requirements? If not, why not?
d. Interpret the results of the statistical techniques for each of the four nutrients. What conclusions can be drawn about the null and alternative hypotheses for each of the four nutrients?
5. Discussion
a. What do the results of the statistical analysis tell us about the differences in regular versus healthy alternative soup? Please be sure to describe the results for all four nutrients.
b. What are some implications or applications of these results to real life?
c. What is a strength of the study?
d. What is a weakness of the study?
e. If you were to do this study again, what is one recommendation you would implement to make the study stronger?