An Observational Study on Breakfast & Lateness
AP Statistics 2018-2019
AMS II
I. Purpose
A huge aspect of student’s daily lives is arriving to school on time. Some students are better than being on time than others. We all know that at everyone has been late to school before, whether you’re a repeated offender or a rare case it happens. There has been noticings of students who are late and also have breakfast in their hands. So now we want to know, when students are aware of their lateness “Is it more likely for students to buy breakfast when late?”. In hopes of determining the answer to this, we as the AP Statistics team have conducted an observational study with the help of our very own AMS 2 scholars. 10 students from each grade were randomly selected and surveyed. The questions asked regarded the number of times they were late this week,the reason for lateness, the day of week of lateness, as well as last week. These questions were specifically asked to find the relationship between lateness and buying breakfast.
II. Mechanics - how we did the work
When we were deciding how to choose the samples, we had to decide how many students in each grade we were going to study. We did not want to have too many people or too little people to survey. In relation to the questions that were included in the survey, we made the questions connect to the essential question. We had to make the questions tie back to lateness causing students to buy food along the way. It led us to ask questions such as “ How many times were you late?’ and ‘What days did you buy breakfast?” On that note, we came into this survey expecting to present a correlation between tardiness and buying breakfast sandwiches. We asked 9- 12 graders. People individually asked students in Gym, Lunch, or room 320 to complete the surveys. We had period three of AP stats, so we approached the Lunch, gym and applied statistics classes of that period. We ended up asking different grades so that the results would come out less biased. Some grades have more of a lateness trend than others.
III. Difficulties & successes of data collection
During our study we had a few challenges like organizing our data. We had to write down everyone we surveyed responses on a sheet of paper and some people had lots to say so it was very difficult to write down everything they had to say.Some people wanted to explain many information to why they are late but we couldn't record every single detail because of time and space during our survey. We also had success for our study, some were how we was able to have actual data from people and it wasn't just made up. We have real charts showing what we did and how we can back it up. Also we did a very simple survey that is very important in school and can go a very long way. People were honest and comfortable and that was good in our study.
What we can do better as a statistics team in our next study
Organize our information better and get straight to the point when asking the questions. Also we wont talk for too long because if we do the person we are surveying will get bored and not want to answer the questions we have or will lie and this will lead to inaccurate data in our study. We have to keep in simple and organized for both the students and staff members we asked.
IV. Results
When you are late to school, why are you late?
IV. Results
When you are late to school, why are you late?
9th grade Transportation Related Issues: 4 People Home Related Issues: 3 People Other Issues: 1 Person |
10th grade Transportation Related Issues: 2 People Home Related Issues: 2 People Other Issues: 1 Person |
11th grade Transportation Related Issues: 5 People Home Related Issues: 4 People Other Issues: 1 Person |
12th grade Transportation Related Issues: 2 People Home Related Issues: 10 PEOPLE! Other Issues: None |
What about last week? What days?
9th grade This Week: No Days (Woohoo): 1 Person 1 Day Late: 3 People J-Tuesday,thursday,wednesday, & friday B-monday & thursday A-No days A-thursday & friday S-wednesday |
10th grade B-All week S-wednesday M-friday F-tuesday & wednesday C-wednesday & thursday |
11th grade Number of Days This Week No Days Late- 2 People 1 Day- 1 Person 2 Days- 2 People 3 Days or More- 1 Person Number of Days Last Week: No Days Late- 2 People 1 Day-1 Person 2 Days- 3 People 3 Days or More- 4 People |
12th grade Number of Days This Week: No Days Late- 1 Person 1 Day- 4 People 2 Days- 1 Person 3 Days or More- 4 People Number of Days Last Week: No Days Late- 3 People 1 Day- 1 Person 2 Days- 2 People 3 Days or More- 4 People |
How many times did you buy breakfast this week?
What about last week?
9th grade Breakfast Bought 0x: 3 People ; None Last Week 1x: 1 Person ; 2 Last Week 2x: None ; 3 People 3x or More: 1 Person ; None Last Week |
10th grade Breakfast Bought 0x: 1 Person ; 1 Person Last Week 1x: None ; 2 Last Week 2x: 3 People ; None Last Week 3x or More: 1 Person ; 2 Last Week |
11th grade Breakfast Bought 0x: 1 People ; 1 Last Week 1x: 3 People ; None Last Week 2x: 2 People ; 2 People 3x or More: 4 People ; 4 Last Week |
12th grade Breakfast Bought 0x: 7 People ; 5 People 1x: 1 People ; 1 People 2x: 1 People ; 3 People 3x or More: 3 People ; 3 People |
What days did you buy breakfast this week?
What about last week?
9th grade No Information |
10th grade No Information |
11th grade Days: (This Week ; Last Week) M: 2 People ; 1 Person T: 1 Person ; 1 Person W: 1 Person ; 1 Person Th: 1 Person ; 1 Person F: 1 Person ; 1 Person |
12th grade Days (This Week ; Last Week) M: 8 People ; 4 People T: 3 People ; 6 People W: 6 People ; 3 People Th: 3 People ; 4 People F: 2 People ; 3 People |
V. Representation of Findings
VI. Conclusion
There is a direct relationship between transportation lateness and the buying of breakfast. As noticed, most of the students are tempted to buy breakfast once they are late. This idea is evident in mostly the 11th and 12 grade. 5 students were late due to transportation issues and those 5 student went to purchase breakfast.11 graders who are late because of home related issues bought food only once or twice that week , probably because of access to food while they were home. Both this week and last 11th and 12 graders had the most latenesses following purchase of a meal, which mostly occurred earlier in the week; Monday and Tuesdays. In regards to 9th and 10th grades there is a relationship bt its more moderate presumably because they are adjusting to high school or trying to maintain good attendance. However for upperclass the days of the week did not affect lateness and buying of breakfast, in a more “nonchalant” behavior but it seems when upperclass students acknowledges that they are late they go on to buy breakfast in contrast to lower class who seems to actually weigh it out before purchasing breakfast.
VII. Limitations of the Study
Considerations:
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Day of the week the data was collected: the number of times a student was late in the SAME week could be different if it was asked on a Monday, Tuesday, etc.
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Coincidence: students that regularly do not buy breakfast could have bought breakfast during the time of the study only
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Beginning of the year: students may be more inclined to do good in the beginning of the school year, so they may be late less compared to towards the end of the school year
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Too late: students who are already late could have chosen to buy breakfast because there is no point in rushing
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Grade bias: each grade has either lower/higher rate of latenesses compared to another
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Finance: students may have little money to buy breakfast, so they have no option even if they are late
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Long wait: students may become late due to long lines