MDM 4U Workshop

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MDM 4U Major Project
West Carleton
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The Project Portfolio

• You (the students) are to keep portfolios of
  their journey to the culminating project.
• The portfolio should
• Reflect the stages of the timeline given,
• Include records of difficulties encountered and
  solutions,
• Include evidence of the use of the tools of the
  course.

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Time and place

• A small amount of time will be allocated in the
  course for you to explore ways to integrate
  developed concepts, methods, etc into your
  project.
• However, since the project is independent, MOST
  of your work on the project must be completed
  outside of class.

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Student-lead Project

• You are to explore real and authentic research
  based on world data not sample group data.
• It is your responsibility to find the data and
  make sense of it .

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Project stages
Explore
Gather Data
Report
Analysis
Presentation
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Explore
Explore
Document - your mind map - articles and
sources - web sites you visited and why - the
evolution of your topic - do you feel strongly
about the issue?
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Gather Data
Gather Data
Document all - at least 2 continuous
quantitative variables? - reliable sources,
techniques? - significant sample size? - sampled
from what population? - preliminary graphs, sense
of relationships - revisit topic, propose thesis
statement
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Analysis
Document all - stages of analysis - the content
of the course? - 1 and 2 var. analysis -
creative? - is it enough to conclude - revisit
thesis - collect more data, etc. - verify against
other sources
Analysis
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Written Report

• Formal Report
• Be professional, do NOT use I
• Thorough detailed analysis
• Document the process
• Explain each graph or chart and describe
• what it illustrates to support your work
• Remember the audience (the reader)
• Include a bibliography/reference page/foot notes
• Have others (classmates, family) check it

The Report
Presentation
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Presenting your work

• Rehearse with peers first
• Make sure it works
• prior to your presentation date
• Engage your audience in the issue
• - Convince but dont overwhelm
• NOT the same as report
• Do not read your report
• Present your work professionally

report
Presentation
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The Great Divide
What we want!
What is easy to get?
- Academic exercise - summary/aggregate data -
articles, opinions - tables, charts, graphs -
own survey - some categorical data
- Authentic research - microdata -census or
large unbiased sample of the population -continuo
us, quantitative variables
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Parallel Development

• The Project
• Explore
• Gather Data
• Analyze
• Report

Tools using the Internet Statistics
Canada Statistical concepts and skills Excel
Spreadsheets Microsoft Word Powerpoint
Presentation Prezi, any other
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Evaluation
Process (10 of term mark) At each stage, be
prepared to submit and discuss in detail complete
documentation of what you have accomplished so
far. The evaluation will be based on
demonstrating your expertise and understanding of
your project. Presentation and Final Report
(10 of final mark) A 10 minute presentation
of your project (not the report) will be given to
the entire class. Peer, self assessments and the
presentation mark by the teacher will be used.
Be prepared to answer lots of questions!
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Likely Problems

• Deciding if the data specifically supports your
  hypothesis
• Problem is too big or vague.
• It is difficult to know exactly what you are
  looking for until youve found it AND analyzed it
  thoroughly!
• Engage in critical thinking at all times.

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Conclusion

• It is okay if there is no correlation but you
  need to support it clearly and effectively!!!
• I am looking for QUALITY work,
  not Quantity.