Project: Working with Data
This handout contains the information you need to get going on your
project. There are two parts to the handout. This first part has
information about due dates for the project, the report you will be
preparing, grading criteria, and a list of students doing the
project to help you in forming a group if you choose to do so.
The second part has a brief summary of your topic and a list of
questions to help you head in the right direction.
The material I'm giving you really is just a bare-bones minimum to help
direct you. You are responsible for finding references and doing your own
investigating and learning. However please feel free to contact me, in
person or by email, for help finding references or working the problems or
for general guidance about the projects, and to give me feedback about how
it is going.
Due Dates
There are three due dates for the project: October 11th, October 30th,
November 22nd. These dates are explained more on page 3. Turning this
material in on time will count towards points in the determination of
your total grade on the project.
On Wednesday, November 22nd your overall project report is due.
Each person will be responsible for preparing his/her own report,
including writing up his/her own solutions to the problems.
Reports and Grading Criteria
Your report should include some version of the following 5 parts. They do
not have to be arranged the way I list them here, but all should be
included in your report in some form or another.
- (5 points) General Discussion Introduction and
generalities for the project (could include why you chose this
project, background about the field of application, goals of the
project, your plans for setting it up), definitions and results from
Probability used in the project, definitions and discussion of results
and ideas from the field of application used in the project. When you
state mathematical results that you use, try to explain some of the
mathematics behind why the results are true-present a derivation if
you can, or, if that is too difficult, give a sketch or an intuitive
idea of how it works.
- (20 points) Solution/Discussion of the issue at hand
Give your explanation on the question posed. It is very important not
only to give a correct answer but also to give a thorough explanation
of your investigation. You should have a clear explanation of each step,
an analysis of what results apply to what step, etc.
- (15 points) References A list of the references that
you used, people you consulted, people you worked with, places you
found help, sources for data. Included in the 15 points will be
turning things on time with respect to the deadlines.
- (2 points) Comments Your comments on how interesting you
found the project, whether you feel that the time you spent on this was
worthwhile and whether it might help you in the future or lead to anything
for you, and suggestions to me for improvements in case I do projects like
this again.
- (8 points) Presentation This includes innovation in
presenting the material of the report,
clarity and neatness, flow, design and organization of the report,
and creativity used in explaining the ideas.
Project Details
This project involves an investigation. Differs from the others in
format. It will involve studying one of the following issues:
- Weather predictions: What does the weather report
mean by "there is forty percent chance of rain today ?" It will be
interesting to call local weather predictors or weather office to find
out what they think about this and related weather predictions.
- Earthquake Prediction: How are earthquakes predicted and
how reliable have the predictions been ?
- Ethics: What are the ethical problems involved in the data bases for DNA finger printing ? What are the ethical issues in the Human Genome project ?
What are the legal issues in using DNA fingerprinting in courts ? how
are they used ?
- Finance: is the stock market really random ? Why choose a portfolio of stocks instead of a single stock ?
What is the role of chance in an investment ?
Plan:
- October 11th Turn in a few words identifying a question
you want to work with. You may choose one of the above or come up with
your own question. If it is the latter you should talk to me soon.
- October 30th Come up with :(a) a list of publically
available sources (Eg.: web-sites, magazine articles, books, news
paper, some data that you have access to..) from which you plan to get
access to the data; and (b) Set up a plan on how you plan to analyse
the data obtained.