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At the beginning of our statistics class, each student was given the task to purchase a
2.17-ounce bag of Skittles and record how many of each color was in their bag along with the
total number of candies. We were then able to use this data throughout the semester to apply
the concepts we were being taught to the bag of skittles we had purchased. We started out by
comparing the quantitative data vs the qualitative data and created graphs to view the shapes.
With this information, we were then able to move on to determining whether the
height of the student purchasing the Skittles had anything to do with number of candies in their
bag. We did this by creating a scatterplot and a regression equation. In the end, we figured out
that there was no relationship between the height of the student and the total number of
Next, we covered the probabilities of selecting and not selecting specific colors of the
candies if we were to blindly pull them out of our bags. We calculated the probabilities of
choosing these colors out of our own bags as well as if we had dumped all the bags from the
class into a bowl and grabbed the candies out of it. Doing this, showed us the changes in
probability that can take place just by changing the sample size.
Finally, we ended with computing confidence intervals and hypothesis tests. During the
confidence intervals, we constructed a 99% and 95% confidence interval for the mean and
number of yellow candies in the bag. We were able to take our calculations and compare the
computations for our bags to the population mean of the class. This allowed us to further
hypothesis test, the test statistic, p-values, type one and two errors and whether we should
reject the null hypothesis based on our calculated p-values. We did this with both a 0.05 and
0.01 significance levels using our data from project two. The purpose of this test was to test the
claim that 20% of all Skittles candies are red and that the mean number of candies in a bag of
In completing this project, I really feel that I learned a lot. It took us outside of the
mindset of clicking through assignments to apply the concept being taught and forced us to
think outside of the box to complete the task at hand. I never would have imagined that so
much data could have been computed just from a small bag of Skittles. Working on this project
throughout the semester kept me very engaged and helped me to understand the material
better.
Going into statistics I was stuck on the fact that I have never really been great at
problem solving and was nervous this was going to get in the way of me passing the class. I am
so grateful for this class because I see in my daily life that I have already improved in this area.
It allows me to sort through data and pick out the important information to come up with a
resolution. This new acquired skill is one that I have applied in both my work and school life.
Now when I am presented with data, I can see more than just a number. I can come up with the