For my final Statistics project, my class gathered data on Skittles.

Each person in the class purchased a

2.17 oz. bag of original Skittles and counted the number of each color. It was my job to take the data
that was compiled and conduct different analysis tests with my personal results and the class results.
These tests include the colors in each bag and the numbers of candies in each bag. Then I can take the
information and create graphs to compare the data.

Proportion of Skittles: Total Sample

.200

.210

.187

.206

.197

Proportion of Skittles: Total Sample

320
310
300
290
280
270
260
Purple

Green

Red

Yellow

Orange

The Pareto Chart looks better. Because the proportions were pretty close together, the pie chart can be
hard to decipher. My personal bag of skittles was Orange having the most at 15, then purple at 14,
yellow and green both at 13 and last was red at 4. My bag of skittles doesnt show the same proportion.

Class Data
Purple
314

Green
308

Red
299

Yellow
295

Orange
280

Yellow
13

Red
4

Personal Data
Orange
15

Purple
14

Total
Sample
Mean
Standard
Deviation
Minimum
Maximum
Q1
Q3

Green
13

25
59.8
1.80
55
63
59
61

Histogram: Mean # Candies per Bag

16

14

14
12
10

8
Frequency

6
4
2

55-56

57-58

0
59-60

Candies Per Bag

61-62

63-64

The data in the Histogram is relatively normally distributed. Most of the bags of candy have an amount
close to mean. The mean is the center and the distribution falls off on both sides. I had 59 candies in my
personal bag which falls close within the mean range. There were a total of 25 bags of candy.
Categorical Data is qualitative, meaning the data consists of names/labels. There is no representation of
measurement. Graphs commonly used to represent categorical data are pie charts and picture charts
because they dont represent actual numbers. Calculations for categorical data usually arent that easy.
Quantitative data consists of numbers. These numbers represent actual measurements. Graphs that
represent quantitative data are Histograms and Proportions because we can use actual data. We can use
lots of calculations with quantitative data because of we have numbers.

Confidence intervals help us estimate the true value of a population parameter. It is a range or interval.
We use confidence intervals associated with a certain level (confidence level) as a percentage. Usually
we use 90%, 95%, or 99% depending on how sure we want to be. A confidence interval can then be used
to test a claim made by a certain hypothesis. Confidence intervals are made prior to conducting the
research.
For proportion of yellow candies we are 99% sure that our true proportion of yellow falls within range of
(.187, .207)
For mean number of candies in a bag, we are 95% sure that the true mean of candies in a bag falls
between (59.07, 60.53)
For the standard deviation of the number of candies in a bag, we are 98% sure that the true standard
deviation is between (1.73, 6.85)

Hypothesis testing in Statistics is a procedure for testing a claim about a certain part of a population. An
example of this would be: The mean body temperature of a human is less than 98.6. We can start with a
null hypothesis and then choose an alternate hypothesis.

When conducting the hypothesis test for the claim that 20% of candies are red, we have an actual
proportion of 20%. This gives us a test statistic of zero. We would fail to reject the claim that 20% of
skittles are red.
For the claim that the mean number of skittles is 55 per bag, we would reject the null hypothesis. The
test statistic is 13.7 standard deviations away from the actual mean. This is an outrageous amount of
distance away.

For proportion tests, we need to have successes and fails more than 5. We definitely have more than
this with our data of 1496 total candies. With hypothesis testing, we need a sample size of more than 30

or it needs to be from a normal distribution. We conducted a histogram which shows that this is from a
normal distribution, so both requirements have been met.
Students could have made up numbers instead of buying the candy and actually counting. We could also
have color blind students in the class which would have misled the data. A larger sample size would have
made our numbers closer to true means/proportions. If one person conducted the research and given
the results, we would have less error. From this data, there seems to be a pretty close mean of candies
per bag. The colors tend to average out when you have a large sample.

REFLECTION
Math has always been a subject I have had to work hard at. I am always asking myself What
does this have to do with nursing? Since Statistics is a class that is required for most nursing
programs, it would make sense that it has something to do with it right? After completing this
skittles project, I have a few ideas.
From day one of our class, I feel like one of the most important things Statistics has
taught me about real life application is to think critically. Sometimes we take things as face
value, and that isnt always the best approach. With research, results can be deceptive. When
looking at results, its important to understand how they are being presented. We saw this with
our bag of skittles. Just because the package states that the net weight is 2.17 oz., doesnt mean
that your bag is exactly that. Every skittle has some variance, and we saw that there was an
average (or mean), and a standard deviation. My bag of skittles had a very small percentage of
red, but when you compare it to the average of the entire class, all the skittles were relatively
close in number. I can apply critical thinking in my profession. For example, looking at patient
care, one patient may be showing signs/symptoms on the surface, but they dont relate to whats
really going on in the inside. If I can use my critical thinking skills in the workforce, I can
improve my performance.

Another thing I learned from this project is sampling and the importance of larger
samples. We dealt with a relatively small sample size of 25 bags of candy. Even with this sample
size, we were able to see a normal distribution and a mean number of candies per bag close to its
average. Companies need to make sure they are advertising appropriately. Now that I know
appropriate terminology for statistics, I know how to read data and results and understand them.