Wake Up, FHS!

For our project, we chose to study the amount of times it takes Fowler High School
students to get ready in the morning. We found this to be an interesting topic, as it was
interesting to look at the range of times between different age levels and genders.
After reviewing all of our data, we learned that most students that attend Fowler High
School take fifteen minutes to get ready. This is our mode meaning that the most common
answer among the fifty students surveyed was 15. In total, ten people said this. We also learned
that the most time it took a student to get ready was one-hundred and twenty minutes and the
least amount of time it took a student to get ready was only two-minutes, which is shown on our
box and whisker plot. The median, or the middle amount is also shown on the box and whisker
plot. This middle number was 15, meaning that the exact middle of the data set fell at 15
minutes. The extremely high number of 120 minutes proved to be an outlier. We found that the
outliers were all of the numbers larger than 63, and smaller than -25. We found these two
numbers by taking our IQR, 22, and multiplying it by 1.5. Then we added that number to our
upper quartile, and subtracted it from the lower quartile. So, our highest amount was an outlier,
and had a large effect on our averages. The range for our data value was one-hundred
eighteen. We found this out by subtracting our largest value (one hundred twenty) from our
smallest value (two) equaling one-hundred eighteen.
For our coefficient of variation we found it be be 94.95 percent. We found this out by
dividing the sample standard deviation by the sample mean and then multiplying that by one
hundred. After all of that, it equals out to 94.95 percent.
The average amount of time it took FHS students to get ready was 21.42 minutes. We
found this number by adding up each value, and dividing by 50, or the total number of values.
However, since we had an outlier, five and ten percent trimmed means gave us a better idea as
to what the average really was. To find the five percent mean, we multiplied 50, or the total
number of values by 5%. This calculation totaled 2.5, telling us to take both 3 numbers off the
top and bottom of our data set. Our 5% trimmed mean was 18.70. This may be a more accurate
representation of the average, since some of the extreme high and low numbers were removed.
We also found the ten percent mean by multiplying fifty by 10%. Our ten percent trimmed mean
was 17.95. This number shows the average amount of time if 10% of the data was eliminated.
Chebyshev’s interval shows us that seventy-five percent of our data falls between -19.26
minutes and 62.1 minutes to get ready. Chebyshev's theorem also shows us that 88.9 percent
of our data take -39.6 minutes to 82.44 minutes to get ready in the morning. Chebyshev’s
theorem also shows us that the majority of the students we chose to ask, 93.8 to be exact, takes
at least -59.64 minutes to 102.78 minutes to get ready in the morning before school.
The variance from our data set was 413.72. The variance measures how far each
number is in our data is from the mean. Our standard deviation is 20.34. Standard deviation is a
number that tells us how far the measurements for our data are spread out from the average or
the mean. Because our standard deviation number is so low that means that are data values
are not very spread out, they are close together. If we have a high standard deviation number,
that would mean that are data values are more spread out.
The box and whisker plot is a visual spread of how the data falls. We can conclude
several things by merely looking at the graph. For example, you may notice that the minimum
number is 2, and the maximum number is 120. It also shows the median, 15, lower quartile, 8,
and upper quartile, 30. However, the main aspect we noticed was the overwhelming spread of
the last 25% of the data. The initial 75% of the data is quite close, however the whisker
illustrating the last 25% is very spread out.