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Introduction:

Throughout my four years of high school, Ive always been called short. Though I

sometimes hung out with friends who were considerably taller than me, I never thought my

height differed that much from the average girl in my grade. I never knew what the average

height of girls in my grade level was, so I never knew if I was that much shorter than my peers.

Therefore, I decided to research the height of high school senior girls at my school to see how

my height of 62 inches compared to my peers.

For my project, I collected numerical data since I went around to senior girls at Elise P.

Buckingham Charter Magnet High School (BCMHS) and asked them what their height was,

which were all numerical values. I didnt take a simple random sample, since I couldnt compile

a list of every single senior girl at Buckingham and randomly select a few to question. For my

sample, I used convenience sampling since I simply asked the first thirty senior girls that I saw at

my school in one day how tall they are. My data was easy to access since I was able to ask all the

senior girls in my AP Environmental Science, Government, and AP Literature class their heights;

the number of girls conveniently equaled thirty. The sample can also be looked at as a cluster

sample since I divided the school into classrooms and collected my data from all senior girls in

specific rooms. From this data, I learned quite a bit.

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Descriptive Statistics:

The raw data in the order in which I collected it is listed below:

Heights of Senior Girls at Elise P. Buckingham Charter Magnet High School (in.)

66 59 64 67 65 63 60 68 66 63
62 64 61 62 60 66 67 67 61 62
62 66 65 66 61 62 64 64 64 62

For the frequency distribution, I decided that I wanted to split the data into five classes.

After deciding this, I found the class width. To find class width, I did the following:

6859
=1.8=2. I rounded 1.8 to 2 because all my data values were whole numbers. The
5

class width shows that the difference between two consecutive lower class limits would be 2

inches. Next, I found all the lower class limits, which are the smallest numbers that can belong to

each of the classes. I found these by having the first lower class limit be the smallest value (59),

then adding the class width (2) four times. This means the lower class limits are as follows: 59,

61, 63, 65, 67. To find the upper class limits, which are the largest number that can belong in

each class, I just simply added 1 to each lower class limits. This means the upper class limits are

as follows: 60, 62, 64, 66, 68. Afterward, I tallied up the data in each class and found each class

frequency. The distribution is one the next page.

Frequency Distribution for Heights of Senior Girls at BCMHS

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Height (in.) Frequency

59-60 3
61-62 9
63-64 7
65-66 7
67-68 4

After constructing the frequency distribution, I found the measurements of center, which

are the mean, median, and mode. For finding the mean, I added all the data values then divided

by the sample size of 30. The mean (xx) of the data is 63.6 inches. After finding the mean, I found

the median, which is the data value at the exact center of all the values when they are arranged in

ascending order. The exact value in the middle of the data set when arranged in ascending order

was 64 inches. Thus, the median of the data set is 64 inches. The last measurement of center I

found was the mode. The mode is the data value that most frequently occurs in the data set. The

mode is 62 inches, which happens to be my height.

Once I found the measures of center, I created a histogram, which is a visual

representation of the frequency distribution. The horizontal axis represents the classes and the

vertical axis represents frequencies. The histogram for the heights of senior girls at Elise P.

Buckingham Charter Magnet High School is on the next page.

Heights of Senior Girls at BCMHS

10
8
6
Frequency 4
2
0
59-60 61-62 63-64 65-66 67-68

Heights (in.)
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Looking at the histogram, it is evident that the data has a rather unique distribution. The

shape of the distribution appears to be bell shaped (normal). The highest number of girls are in

the 61 62 in. class, however, the mean is in the center class (the 63 64 in. class). If anything,

the histogram would be considered slightly skewed left since the mean isnt exactly in the middle

of the classes.

Next, I constructed a boxplot. A boxplot is another visual representation of the data. To

make the boxplot, I used the five-number summary, which consists of the minimum value, the

three quartiles, and the maximum values for the data set. To find the five-number summary, I

used the STAT button on my calculator. Then, under the CALC division of the button, I used 1-

Var Stats. This produced the five numbers for the summary. The five-number summary for the

data set is 59, 62, 64, 66, 68. There is a line connecting the minimum and maximum values to the

quartiles, which are the box. The boxplot for the heights of senior girls at Elise P. Buckingham

Charter Magnet High School can be seen on the next page.

Heights of Seniors at BCMHS

58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69

Heights (in.)

One can see that the boxplot is almost exactly centered, which is an indication of a

normally distributed data set. The graph does appear to be slightly skewed left since the line on
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the left side of the boxplot is slightly longer. Therefore, through the boxplot and the histogram,

one can see that the distribution of the data set is fairly normal but slightly skewed left.

Determining whether the data contained any unusual values was next. I did this by

finding what values would be considered two or more standard deviations to the left or right of

the mean. I first had to determine the standard deviation of the data set, which I did using the

same 1-Var Stats function on my calculator. The standard deviation (s) of the data set is 2.4

inches. I then used the equations xx+2s and xx-2s to find what values would be more than two

standard deviations away from the mean. Once I did this, I found that any height higher than 68.4

inches and any value lower than 58.8 inches would be considered unusual. Since the highest

height was 68 inches and the lowest was 59 inches, none of the data values are considered

unusual.

Hypothesis Test:

For my hypothesis test, I decided I wanted to test the claim that the mean height of senior

girls at Elise P. Buckingham Charter Magnet High School is greater than 62 inches. I wanted to

perform this particular test since I am 62 inches tall and the purpose of my research was to find

out if I was shorter than the majority of my peers. My null hypothesis (H0) and alternative

hypothesis (H1) are below:

H0: = 62 inches

H1: > 62 inches

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I came up with the null hypothesis as a way of trying to find out if my height is the mean

of the population of all senior girls at BCMHS. The alternate hypothesis is the hypothesis that

claims that the mean height of all BCMHS senior girls is greater than my height of 62 inches.

The null and alternate hypothesis will help me determine if Im of average height compared to

my peers or if I am shorter than them. I decided to go with a 0.05 significance level for my test.

The first step in my hypothesis test was finding the critical value/s. To find the critical

value/s, I had to first determine if the hypothesis test was left-tailed, right-tailed or two tailed.

Since I was testing if the mean was larger than 62 inches in the alternative hypothesis, the

hypothesis test was right-tailed. Next, I found the degree of freedom, which is the sample size (n)

minus one. Since my sample size is 30, the degree of freedom is 29. Since I knew that the

population size is 30, the degree of freedom is 29, the test is one tailed, and the significance level

is 0.05, I was able to find the critical value on the t Distribution chart (Table A-3). According to

Table A-3, the critical value for the test is 1.699.

The next step was to find the test statistic. Since we are testing a claim about a mean and

the standard deviation of the population () isnt known, the equation for the test statistic (t) is

x x
t= . The numbers I plugged in for the equation are as follows: xx = 63.6, x = 62
S n

(we dont know the true value, but assume that the null hypothesis will be correct during

hypothesis testing), s = 2.4, and n = 30 . Therefore, the equation looked like this with

63.662
everything was plugged in: t= . After using the correct order of operations, I found
2.4 30

that the test statistic (t) is 3.651.

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If any test statistic falls within the critical region, we reject H0. In this case the critical

value is 1.699, so any test statistic that is equal to or larger than 1.699 is considered in the critical

region. The test statistic is 3.651 and falls into the critical region. Therefore, we reject H0. This

means there is sufficient evidence to support the claim that the mean height of senior girls at

Elise P. Buckingham Charter Magnet High School is greater than 62 inches.

Conclusion:

Overall, I believe I conducted a successful research through numerical data analysis. I

was able to answer my question of Am I really that much shorter than my peers (senior girls at

Elise P. Buckingham Charter Magnet High School)? The answer was yes; I am quite short

compared to a good portion of my peers. The hypothesis testing proved this point. I was able to

learn the information that was interesting to me, and the results were a bit shocking. I thought

that the mean of the heights would have been lower since I dont feel almost two inches shorter

than the average senior girl at BCMHS. One thing I would have done differently is I would have

liked to not have just asked thirty senior girls who were in my classes during one day. I would

have at least gone up to random senior girls at lunch to better replicate a simple random sample.

However, with many seniors having off-campus lunch passes and many leaving during lunch

hours, it would have been difficult to find even twenty senior girls to interview. If I had done a

more random sampling, I could have gotten a higher variety of heights. I also wish I would have

been able to measure them myself. However, I didnt have anything to measure them with, and I

wouldnt have had the time in class to do so. This could have caused people to falsely report

results. I would have been able to get the most accurate results if I had measured those I

interviewed. Though, there are a few things I would have done differently, I believe my project

gave me the information I sought, and it was a success.