APA Paper

Phew. Glad that one is over and handed in. The assignment was to write up a results section, in APA format, for various influences on quiz scores. 
We were given the data in excel and had to manipulate it in order to determine if any of the following things had a significant influence on quiz scores: personality (introvert or extrovert), sex (male or female), teaching status (teaching or non-teaching), age and millennial score.

            At first I struggled with setting up the second set of data,
            that was needed to complete the second table, but it was
            because I was comparing apples to oranges. Once I got
            that straightened out, the rest of the data manipulation
            and testing went fine.

Once the t-tests were complete and the p values were found for each section a paper could be formed. We were to write a "results" section of a paper containing the data that we manipulated earlier to demonstrate our abilities in spreadsheets, word processing, and APA formatting.

            The most trying part of this assigment was formatting. Two
            different websites were given to explain APA formatting.
            One for APA formatting and one for journal formatting.
            Having both websites as explanations was confusing as they
            had conflicting advice.  I posted a discussion question on
            Blackboard: "Do we single space (journal website) or double
            space (general apa guidelines) and do we change paper size 
            and such like journals?Also, page numbers top right (general 
            apa format) or bottom center (journal format)?  Pierce 
            emailed us: double and topright, which are both basic
            APA format and not journal format.  Once I got that part
            figured out I completed my paper and submitted.

The outcomes of this assigment were to understand APA formatting for numbers, tables, style, text, t-test findings, and references.  Also, to be able to develop, test, and interpret results of a hypothesis using bivvariate analysis in spreadsheet form and to develop a narrative paper in APA style to write up the results.  I believe that I accomplished all of these otucomes and have a better understanding of all of those things (that is before my paper has been graded).  If I had to compelte this assigment again, after learning what I learned about formatting and statistical tests I believe that I could cut the amount of hours that I put into this paper at least in half if not more. 

*** I did ok on the paper, not quite qhat I expected, but not bad.  There were a couple of things that I needed to work on a little harder.  I didnt have APA quite right for discussing the tables but upon reviewing more research papers I am learning a lot more.  I do feel comfortable with organizing and manipulating data in excel and I am pretty confident in my formatting of tables APA in a sense that if I had to do this all over again I would do it much better and probably much quicker. 

ISTE NETS T - Standard 3a,b,d: Model Digital - Teachers exhibit knowledge, skills, and work processes representative of an innovative professional in a global and digital society. Teachers: a)demonstrate fluency in technology systems and transfre of current knowledge to new technologies and situations.  Ive never used t tests before this class.  I have seen p values but didnt understand what they came from, so I could apply my knowledge from statistics classes to this assignment and I will be able to apply this assigment to future assigments. b)collaborate with peers using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation.  Me and a couple of the other students in this class collaborated over email, im, and in person.  d) Model and facilitate effective use of current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate, and use information resources to support research and learning.  I had to use excel to complete these t-tests and analyze the data given.

Excel 2

Using the same data as the previous Excel blog, we were asked to look at a research question.

Used NCES site and looked at the state comparisons to assess where we are in terms of the national educational landscape. 

Research Question: What factor, if any, does gender play in 8th grade math performance?
Hypothesis: There is a difference between the male and female scores.
Hypothesis: There is no difference. (null hypothesis)

For this particular question we will be looking at the following information:

categorical independent variable is gender male/female.

continuous dependent variable is NAEP 2011 8th Grade state math averages.

We know the averages and standard deviations from our descriptive statistics. Now we need to know whether to accept or reject the null hypothesis.  We can use a  t-test & then Look at the 2 tail p value and make a decision.  The picture below is a Jing image of the t-test I carried out for the given data.
 

As you can see by the t-chart, which gives you an average as well as p values (which we needed), there isn’t a difference between male and female scores.  To break that down I highlighted the p values.  On the right side, NSD stands for no significant difference because our p value is greater than 0.05.  Either test gives the same result, even the two tail is greater than 0.05, so there is no significant difference and thus we must accept the null hypothesis.  There is no difference between the male or female scores. 

 ISTE NETS T - Standard 1 & 2- During this activity, students are expected to complete an assignment using digital tools (Jing), technology system (Excel) and media. Students are expected to be active in their own learning and understanding of the content. Digital communication aides in the advancement of resources and support. This activity is a great summative assessment due to the nature of the outcomes. The scatter plot offers some sort of data that should be relevant to the assignment.

Excel 1

Used NCES site and looked at the state comparisons to assess where we are in terms of the national educational landscape.

Sort the scores Ascending / Total Score.

Compute the descriptive statistics for the total score column.

West Virginia is fairly low when it comes to comparing National Center for Education Statistics National Assessment of Educational Progress 8^th grade math scale scores to other states.  There are merely 5 states below West Virginia, leaving the remaining 57 states included in this study above West Virginia.  By looking at the scatterplot above, you can see that West Virginia isn’t close to average; we are actually below it by quite a bit. 


 

 ISTE NETS T - Standard 1 & 2- During this activity, students are expected to complete an assignment using digital tools (Jing), technology system (Excel) and media. Students are expected to be active in their own learning and understanding of the content. Digital communication aides in the advancement of resources and support. This activity is a great summative assessment due to the nature of the outcomes. The scatter plot offers some sort of data that should be relevant to the assignment.