Project 1: Day 1 M&Ms Project

Updated 2007-8

Project Overview

You are writing to an audience of 9th graders who know nothing about statistics but read graphs well. They want to know what to expect about the number of each color of MMs when they buy a singular bag in the future. Analyze the M&M data gathered on the first class day. Note that this question might be asked of any mathematics class so I do NOT expect you to use Fathom or the statistical portions of your calculator.

Expectations

Page 1: A title page.

Page 2: The actual page of dotplots exactly as distributed by your teacher.

M&M's Color Data Generated by APSTATS September 5, 1996

Figure 1: Count by bag from 17 bags of M&Ms.

BLUE BROWN GREEN ORANGE RED YELLOW
5 13 9 6 14 10
4 13 10 8 14 9
4 15 8 6 11 13
3 19 2 7 13 11
7 19 9 1 11 9
4 10 7 4 17 14
5 15 6 8 13 11
5 17 4 2 12 12
2 16 4 4 13 16
3 19 5 4 13 11
9 11 7 10 5 13
6 24 4 4 5 15
4 20 7 6 8 12
5 12 5 7 17 9
1 21 7 4 11 14
7 16 3 3 12 14
6 14 3 6 10 16



Figure 2: Dotplot by Color from 17 bags of M&Ms
                : :
  . . : : : : :    .
+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+-------BLUE
                                     .
                    . . . : . : : .   : . .     .
+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+-------BROWN
        .     :
    . : : : . : . : .
+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+-------GREEN
        .
        :   :
  . . . :   : : :   .
+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+-------ORANGE
                      .   :
         :     .   . : : : :     :
+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+-------RED
                  .   .     .
                  : . : : : : . :
+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+-------YELLOW
0.0      5.0      10.0      15.0      20.0      25.0

 

Page 3: The three sections below. This may NOT be longer than 1 page for any reason. Parts 1 & 3 should be word-processed. Part 2 may be done by hand.

1. Short Description of the Experiment. Include the research question.

2. Summary of Results by Color (do not include the actual data). Include both a table and a bar graph of an eye-balled sample average for each color. This section includes no written interpretation. This section should be as small as possible. Perhaps 2 inches high.

3. Predictions: From the data your class has collected, make a prediction for the most likely DISTRIBUTIONS of the colors that a SINGLE new bag of M&Ms is likely to have. Give support for your conclusions based on the following from page 3 of WS:

“The most fundamental principle in statistics is that of .”

Suggestion: Make sure you know the definition of Distribution. Essentially, this section is about grouping, comparing, and contrasting the distributions of the colors in some sensible, organized fashion.

Page 4: Demonstrate your understanding of the difference between the appropriate use of dotplots and bar graphs by examining how they are used on the same set of data in this study. This might be a brief paragraph of two to four sentences.

Some details