Project

By the end of this course, you will have completed an original research project! As part of this project, you will collect real data, explore the data to discover patterns, and fit statistical models that describe these patterns mathematically. You’ll also have the opportunity to communicate your findings to your classmates in the course-wide project showcase.

Final Project Showcase: Present your findings (LIVE on Dec 14 at 8:30AM)

Each group will be assigned a physical location on campus by the teaching team. In Fall 2023, we will be using three classrooms in Building 200: 200-114, 200-105, 200-106.

The teaching team will announce the room assignments in class and over Slack in advance of the showcase. Please report directly to your assigned location on the day of the final project showcase.

Each group will have 5 minutes to present their project, with 2 minutes afterwards to answer questions. Please practice your presentation in advance and do your best to include all group members in the oral presentation.

Project Milestone 6: Submit final project poster (Due Dec 13 at 12PM NOON PT)

Each group is responsible for designing a scientific poster to communicate their results at the final project showcase and submitting an electronic copy of this poster as a PDF via Canvas.

Here are some additional resources to help you understand what constitutes an effective scientific poster and provide some practical tips for designing effective ones.

You are welcome to design your own poster in any application you like. However, to help you out we have developed this poster template using Google Slides which you are welcome to use (“Make a Copy” first then edit). If you choose to design your own using a different application, it is still a good idea to consult the template so you know what information to include in your poster.

Here are some additional general recommendations:

Omit unnecessary words. Only essential text should be retained in your poster. Complete sentences not required.
Use large font sizes and use consistent font styling throughout. For example, use bold or italics sparingly and for consistent reasons throughout poster (e.g., only for “take-home” messages).
Prioritize graphics to text. If you can replace some text with a graphic that conveys the same information, do so. If there is more than one data visualization that you think is important for understanding your project/results, find a way to include it.

Project Milestone 5: Submit final project report (Due Dec 12 at 11:59PM PT)

Project Milestone 5 synthesizes all of the work you have done throughout the quarter on your final project and will be graded for clarity and accuracy. Here is a link to the grading rubric.

Only ONE submission per group is required.

Project Milestone 4: Fit statistical model to data and construct key visualizations (Due Nov 17 at 11:59PM PT)

Please fetch & complete the “Project Milestone 4A: Data Preprocessing” and “Project Milestone 4B: Model Fitting” Jupyter notebooks. This activity will help you practice preparing your data to be fit with a linear model by applying any needed preprocessing (e.g., filtering out obvious outliers, recoding variables). Only ONE submission per group is required. Please designate one project group member to act as the corresponding author for this and subsequent project milestones.

Project Milestone 3: Preregistration of research question (Due Nov 3 at 11:59PM PT)

Please fetch & complete the “Project Milestone 3A: Preregistration” and “Project Milestone 3B: Targeted Data Visualization” Jupyter notebook from Canvas, and submit via Canvas. These activities will help you practice articulating the research question (i.e., about the relationship between two variables) for your final project, thinking about different potential data-generating processes (DGPs), and constructing useful data visualizations to answer targeted questions. Only ONE submission per group is required. Please designate one project group member to act as the corresponding author for this and subsequent project milestones.

Project Milestone 2: Data visualization (Due Oct 20 at 11:59PM PT)

Please fetch & complete “Project Milestone 2A: Exploratory Visualization” and “Project Milestone 2B: Refining Data Visualizations” Jupyter notebook from Canvas, and submit via Canvas. ONE submission per student is required.

Project Milestone 1: Complete survey (Due Oct 6 at 11:59PM PT)

Please complete & submit the classwwide survey while participating in discussion section to receive full credit for completing this milestone. The survey responses from the whole class will provide the dataset your final project group will explore and analyze. ONE submission per student is required.

Project Milestone 0: Generate variables (Due Oct 5 at 11:59PM PT)

Please complete & submit this worksheet while participating in discussion section to receive full credit for completing this milestone. You do NOT need to upload anything to Canvas to receive full credit for this assignment. ONE submission per student is required.

Prof. Judith Fan