Part I

For my statistics class we have a term project that each student was to buy a 2.17oz bag
of original skittles. Each student had to separate the colors (red, orange, green, yellow, and
purple) and count their data and then submit it to the teacher so that it could be put into a
spread sheet with each students individual bag of skittles. We then had to make graphs and
charts representing the data. First I added each color within the overall sample gathered from the
class and created a Pie Chart and a Pareto Chart for each number of skittles within a color group.
I then also made a graph of my own bag and the class data.
The graphs do represent what I expected to see from the data collected by the whole class
and my own bag of skittles. Some of the proportions of others bags of candies seemed low to me,
which would be considered outliers, but overall the data compared with my own results. With
purple being the largest color group and orange being the lowest.
Next we had to calculate the mean, standard deviation, and 5-number summary using the
total number of candies in each bag from the class sample. The mean result was 59.1, the
standard deviation was 8.43, and the five number summary is minimum=27, quartile one=58.5,
median=61, quartile three= 62, and maximum=73. The type of histogram the data created was
not a normal distribution it was a skewed distribution. The graphs do reflect what I expected to
see given the data, my data does agree with the class data. The total in my personal bag of
skittles was 62 and the total number of bags was 21.
In the first section we were making the graphs based on categorical data. Categorical data
consists of names or labels (i.e. colors in this case).We used a Pie chart and Pareto chart for this
information because it can be categorized to make sense for the data because we are working

with a category. Quantitative data is what we represented in the second section, quantitative
data consists of numbers representing counts or measurements (i.e. mean, standard deviation, 5number summary).We used quantitative data when making the histogram and box-plot because
those types of graphs make sense for numerical data because we are working with numbers.
Below are the graphs talked about in this report:

Pareto Chart for the numbers of skittles of each

color
(the colors of each bar represent the color of skittle)

0.22

0.216

0.215

NUMBERS OF SKITTLES

0.21
0.205
0.2

0.197

0.198

0.195
0.19

0.189

0.185
0.18
0.175

COLOR OF SKITTLES

0.200

Pie Chart for the numbers of skittles

of each color
PROPORTIONIZED AS DECIMALS
0.216
0.197

0.200
0.198
0.189

Color of skittles

Graph showing the results of my own

bag of skittles

10

12

Number of skittles

14

16

18

RESULTS OF ENTIRE SAMPLE

(colors represent the skittle colors)

COLORS PER BAG

17
17

11
13

13
10
9

22

10

12
7
13

15

15

18

17

15
10

15

13

10

13

14

10
9
11

10
12

16
10

13
8

15
7

9
15

12

13

16
13

18

12

13
12

14

10
15

14
10

8
15
11

10

12

13

14

BAG NUMBERS

15

11

18
10

13

12

14

10

15

18
12

14

15
17

12

10

13

8
10

12

12

14

10

17
8

11

10

15

12
7

4
14

11

8
1
6

16

17

15
10

10
12

18

19

14
12
6
12

15

20

21

Part II- For part II we were asked to find the confidence intervals for 3 different parts of the
above information. The purpose and meaning of a confidence interval is to show that the true
value is within the population parameters.
The proportion of yellow skittles

We are 99% confident that the interval 9.875 to 13.459 actually does contain the true value of the
population proportion of yellow skittles.
The true mean number of skittles per bag

We are 95% confident that the interval from 55.263 to 62.937 actually does contain the true
value of the mean number of skittles per bag.
The standard deviation of the number of skittles per bag

We are 98% confident that the interval from 6.151 to 13.118 actually does contain the true value
of the standard deviation of the number of skittles per bag.

Part III- Reflective Writing

During this project I learned how to use Microsoft Excel which will help me for many
things including other classes in the future. With Microsoft excel there are so many things you
can do with this program and it is a great way to just organize data. You can create graphs and
charts using the program, which made part one of the project much easier than drawing
everything by hand, which we would have had to do if we didnt have this program. I really
disliked excel prior to beginning this project, but now I think I will be using it more often
because of all of its resources.
This project has helped me apply the math skills I learned throughout the semester like
creating different kinds of graphs and charts showing statistics with confidence intervals. Also
showed me how statistics work in everyday scenarios with pretty much everything there can be a
statistic applied to it. Prior to taking this class I never would of thought about the different
amounts of colors per bag of candy, and if they have a certain statistic or criteria that the candy
companies are supposed to be meeting.
With learning the above information from this project I think it will help me in my future
as a student and in my future career as a nurse in research assignments and research studies I
may be working on in the future. It has shown me that there is plenty of research to be done and
a lot of data to be involved when working with a sample to come up with statistical measures of
confidence from a population
Overall I enjoyed this project, like with any group project or project in general there was
some struggles along the way but that only helped me learn how to figure it all out better.