Option 1: Springdale Shopping Survey

Instructions
The major shopping areas in the community of Springdale include Springdale Mall, West Mall, and the downtown area on Main Street. A telephone survey has been conducted to identify strengths and weaknesses of these areas and to find out how they fit into the shopping activities of local residents. The 150 respondents were also asked to provide information about themselves and their shopping habits. The data are provided in the file SHOPPING. The variables in the survey can be found in the file CODING.

We will concentrate on variables 18–25, which reflect how important each of eight different attributes is in the respondent’s selection of a shopping area. Each of these variables has been measured on a scale of 1 (the attribute is not very important in choosing a shopping area) to 7 (the attribute is very important in choosing a shopping area). The attributes being rated for importance are listed below. Examining the relative importance customers place on these attributes can help a manager “fine-tune” his or her shopping area to make it a more attractive place to shop.

18 Easy to return/exchange goods
19 High quality of goods
20 Low prices
21 Good variety of sizes/styles
22 Sales staff helpful/friendly
23 Convenient shopping hours
24 Clean stores and surroundings
25 A lot of bargain sales

1. Perform the following operations for variables 18–25:
   1. Compute descriptive statistics for each variable along with an explanation of what the descriptive statistics tell us about the variable. This will include the mean, mode, range, standard deviation, and the 5-number summary (minimum, first quartile (Q1), median (Q2), third quartile (Q3), and maximum). Be sure to show each calculation in your spreadsheet.
   2. Are there any data points for any of the variables that can be considered outliers? If there are any outliers in any variable, please list them and state for which variable they are an outlier. Use the z-score method to determine any outliers for this question. Be sure to show each z-score calculation in your spreadsheet for each variable.
2. Based on the results for question 1, which attributes seem to be the most important and the least important in respondents’ choice of a shopping area? Which items from #1 did you use to decide on the least and most important attributes, and why?
3. Determine the correlation coefficient between variable 19 and variables 21–25. Please provide an explanation of the relationships. Show your calculations for each correlation coefficient within the spreadsheet.

Paper Requirements
Write a report that applies the Written Assignment Requirements under the heading Expectations for CSU-Global Written Assignments found in the CSU-Global Guide to Writing and APA. Items that should be included, at a minimum, are a title page, an introduction, a body which answers the questions posed in the problem, and a conclusion paragraph that addresses your findings and what you have determined from the data and your analysis. As with all written assignments, you should have in-text citations and a reference page. Please include any tables of calculations, calculated values, and graphs associated with this problem in the body of your assignment response.

Note: You must submit your Excel file with your report. This will aid in grading with partial credit if errors are found in the report.

Option 2: World Populations

Instructions
Today there are 195 sovereign countries in the world that are officially recognized. One can choose to look at many types of data coming from these countries, as there is a plethora of existing information. For this assignment you will be looking at populations of cities within Brazil at four different times (depending on when a census was taken). The data for these cities can be found in the file named Populations. Use all of the data points for each of the years given, but please note that not every city has a population for each census.

Prepare a report (see below) using the numerical methods of descriptive statistics presented in this module to show how the populations of the cities vary over the years (growth rates). Be sure to include the following three (3) items in your report.

1. Compute descriptive statistics for each of the years along with an explanation of what the descriptive statistics tell us about the different years. Are they continually growing, or is there a decrease in the number of people? The descriptive statistics will include the mean, mode, range, standard deviation, and the 5-number summary (minimum, first quartile (Q1), median (Q2), third quartile (Q3), and maximum).
2. Determine which cities, if any, should be considered outliers in each of the years? If there are any outliers in any year, please list them and state for which year each one is an outlier. Use the z-score method to determine outliers for this question showing the z-score calculations for each city and year in your spreadsheet.
3. Determine the correlation coefficient between the first year and each of the other years. Please provide an explanation of the relationships. Show your calculations for each correlation coefficient within the spreadsheet.

Paper Requirements
Write a report that uses the Written Assignment Requirements under the heading Expectations for CSU-Global Written Assignments found in the CSU-Global Guide to Writing and APA. Items that should be included, at a minimum, are a title page, an introduction, a body which answers the questions posed in the problem, and a conclusion paragraph that addresses your findings and what you have determined from the data and your analysis. As with all written assignments, you should have in-text citations and a reference page. Please include any tables of calculations, calculated values, and graphs associated with this problem in the body of your assignment response.

Note: You must submit your Excel file with your report. This will aid in grading with partial credit if errors are found in the report.