Research Project Overview

Throughout the entire semester you will work with a co-author to analyze a data set and present the results of your research. Regular homework assignments will serve as a first draft of exploration into your research questions, and helps you build your story. However expect to visualize and analyze your data outside the those assignments.

You will build up your project in phases, revising multiple times. Here is the general outline, with each phase is explained in detail further below.

  • Phase 1: Data and Topic approval
  • Phase 2: Introduce your project and variables of interest
  • Phase 3: Explore your data and relationships
  • Phase 4: Analyze bivariate relationships
  • Phase 5: Multivariable modeling
  • Phase 6: Summarize Findings

Deliverables

Your research team will produce two separate deliverables: a research poster and a report to be submitted to the Journal of Math 615.

Poster / Poster prep slides

We will hold a Research Poster symposium during finals week for everyone to present their work.

You will be organizing your findings using a Google Slides template that will lead you through an organized approach to reporting research. This short format will also help you concisely explain your research findings in a way will be easier to translate (fit) onto a poster.

  • These slides stay in Google (are not submitted to Canvas) and are subject to the mastery based assessment discussed at the bottom of this page.
  • The contents of each slide are specified in the slide template and explained below.
    • You are welcome to have “staging” slides where you can dump content, thoughts, analyses that you may end up using. These extra slides should be at the END of the required slides.
  • There are also example slides from prior students as a references.

Report

You will also submit a written a report to the internal Journal of Math 615. A small selection of projects from the course are published each semester, showcasing the range of topics and analytical approaches explored by our students.

See the Guide for Authors for more details.

Peer Review

After selected phases your poster prep slides and written report will be submitted for feedback, peer review and scoring. It is expected that you revise your work after each set of reviews. Peer reviews of the written report will be done in Canvas using a scoring rubric. Peer reviews of the poster prep slides will occur as comments in google slides.

Learning Resources

Details for each Phase

Phase 1: Data and Topic Propsal

Identify a research partner, propose a research topic and corresponding data set.

Open source data repositories to peruse:

❌ Sources not allowed: Machine learning repositories such as Kaggle or UCI. Data generated from experimental lab designs with few variables.

Criteria for choosing a data set
  • You either know something about the topic or it is something you want to learn about
  • File type must be a .txt, .csv, .xlsx or .xls file
  • File size is less than 1 Gig
  • A codebook or data dictionary that fully explains what each variable means is available.
  • There are at least 200 rows (observations), but ideally between 500-10,000.
  • There are 10 or more unique and interesting variables
    • At least 4 quantitative variables
    • Variables are not functions of each other (e.g. weight in lbs and weight in kg)

Your data set must be approved before you are allowed to work with it.

The sooner your data is approved the sooner you can work with it! If your proposed data set is turned down twice in a row get turned down, you will be required to use one of Dr. D’s curated data sets.

Phase 2: Introduce your research question and variables of interest

  1. Make a copy of this Template and save it in the Poster Prep folder in our Google Drive. This template provides instructions and tips on what should be included on each slide.
  2. Name your file using the last names of your research team. E.g. Donatello, Raymond
  3. Fill out the required information on slides 1-5 (yellow).
  • Slide 01. Title
  • Slide 02. Introduction & Background
  • Slide 03. Research Gap & Purpose
  • Slide 04. Research Questions
  • Slide 05. Study Design & Data Source

Phase 3: Exploratory data analysis

Fill out the required information on slides 6-9 (blue).

  • Slide 06. Variables of Interest
  • Slide 07. Response Variable Description
  • Slide 08. Explanatory Variable Description
  • Slide 09. Descriptive Relationship

Phase 4: Bivariate Inference

Fill out the required information on slides 10-11 (purple).

Note that if you decided to change variables since the last time, you will need to update the corresponding descriptions and graphs on prior slides.

  • Slide 10. Statistical Analysis Methods
  • Slide 11. Bivariate Analysis Results

Phase 5: Multivariable modeling

Fill out the required information on slides 12-14 (green).

  • Slide 12. Model building process
  • Slide 13. Multivariable model result
  • Slide 14. Model Assessment

Phase 6: Summarize Findings

Fill out the required information on slides 15-17 (orange).

  • Slide 15. Discussion & Conclusions
  • Slide 16. Implications & Limitations
  • Slide 17. References

Dissemination

Research Poster

  • You will transfer all findings into a research poster, print the poster, and then present your research to your classmates during our class final period in a poster symposium format.
  • Full guidelines including examples and evaluation criteria are written in this blog post.
  • Submit the poster file as printed to Canvas by the due date.

Draft version

This draft is graded based on how complete the poster is. You should consider this a draft that you would circulate to your colleagues for final review and comments. There is a rubric in Canvas with details.

Save your poster as a PDF and upload to the Poster-Draft folder in Google Drive.

Final Version

Upload your final poster as it is printed in PDF format Canvas.

Presentation at the Poster Symposium

When not presenting, you will walk around and learn about others research. Ask the presenters questions and fill out an evaluation form as you go. Poster scoring follows the above evaluation criteria and will be done via Google Forms. The link to this semesters form is in Canvas. Printed copies will be available upon request.

Research Report

Following the Guide for Authors you will submit a draft after Phase 3 that will be peer reviewed, and a final report at the end of the semester.

Project Grading Method

Research Development Slides

This work will be done through a series of revisions gaining feedback from the instructor at each phase.

Each slide will be marked one of the following categories

  • Not Assessable: No content presented.
  • SR: Substantial revisions needed. This is C level work.
  • MR: Minor revisions needed. This is B level work.
  • E : Exceptional work. This is A level work.

Rubric / Assessment form

Each team has their own ‘project assessment’ Google spreadsheet that shows you what achievement level you are at for each slide. It is locked to only view mode and only you and I have access to it. At the bottom of this file you will find a personalized grading rubric containing an estimate of your final score.

I will update your status column for the slides that are being assessed at that Phase, and enter your score into the Research Development assignment in Canvas.

Research Report

See Canvas for details and rubrics.