Title: Beverages at the Caffeinator-Buying a drink from the Caffienator is predicted by sex.

Step 1: Determine a question and Hypothesis My Question is: Does buying a drink from the Caffeinator vary by sex on the college campus? My Hypothesis is: Buying a drink from the Caffeinator on college campuses varies by sex, where females are more likely to buy a drink than males. Defining Terms: I will define buying a drink as any form of drink purchased from the Caffeinator (pastries do not count). The college campus is UIUC Step 2: Determine the appropriate methods for testing your hypothesis A. B. Location: The Caffeinator in SDRP Time: 30 min/hour for 2 hours, (4-5 pm)

C. Data Collection and Rationale: I am picking 30 min/hour for 2 hours because this seems to be a good amount of time to account for slower periods for the Caffeinator, allowing for more accurate results. I also have to do this twice, assuring that I wont be stuck with results from an off day, or a more popular day. I will be doing this around 2-5 pm, or midday, because I believe this is when there will the most traffic at the caffeinator due to the large amount of students usually finishing class at this time. The higher the traffic, the better the results. I will be counting every person who buys a drink, and thus dividing my groups into males who bought a drink and females who bought a drink. Essentially, I will be keeping a tally of each sex and whether or not they bought a drink.I expect a difference in the drinking behavior of both females and males. I think females will be more likely than males to buy a drink from the Caffeinator (With sex being the variable).

Step 3: Performing the Methods I performed my study on the right side of the caffeinator, so I would be able to see the people come around and wait for their drinks (making for easy tallying). I then collected data in 30 minute periods (from 2-3:30, depending on the day) across two different days. In order to make sure I wasn't having just a "popular" or "off" day, I did both days of the weekend, Saturday and Sunday. Within each 30 minute time period, I noticed who purchased a drink (as opposed to a snack) and counted the number of people that bought a drink, and the sex (male or female) of the specific person. I did not have any trouble distinguishing people, or whether or not they bought a drink. My spreadsheet with my data looks like this:

On Saturday, November 9 from 3:30-4:20, I observed 7/30(23%) of males buying drinks, meaning that 23/30 (77%) females bought drinks as well. Accordingly, on the first day, it seemed that a huge majority of females bought drinks as opposed to men. Then, on Sunday, November 10 from 2:20-2:50, I observed 4/17 (24%) males buying drinks, meaning that 13/17(76%) females bought drinks as well. Accounting for the tallies of both days, I found that 11/47 (23%) males bought drinks at the Caffeinator, with zero undefined. This means that the majority of drinks were bought by females, or 36/47(77%). Surprisingly, it seems on both days there was an equal percentage of males and females buying drinks. Step 4: Evaluate and Interpret the Evidence My hypothesis predicts that buying a drink from the Caffeinator on college campuses varies by sex, where females are more likely to buy a drink than males. After the observation study, my hypothesis appeared to be clearly supported. Women consistently ordered more drinks than their male counterparts. Furthermore, it was not just a slight difference, but a rather large majority ( 23% of males total as opposed to 77% of females total). There are a variety of possible issues that should be addressed before taking these results at face value. To begin with, my study was conducted over the weekend, so there may have been a possible increase in females buying drinks over the weekend. Additionally, as this is a college campus, the trend in buying drinks may not be applied to different age groups. Regardless of such possible issues, my results showed a trend that supported my hypothesis of women being more likely to buy drinks then men. Broader meaning may be tentatively generalized from these results, including an attribution to sex differences in shopping, as well as possible health benefits. Although it is stereotyped that males and females have different shopping habits, according to a study by Parks Associate (2011), women were more likely than men to purchase technology (i.e tablets, laptops, and smartphones). Thus it seems to be an existing trend that women are more likely to purchase certain products then men. However, one should be cautioned in generalizing results immediately, as the sample size for Parks Associate was one of 2000, and my own study was much smaller. Also, another study from the Archives of Internal Medicine suggested that drinking coffee may prevent depression in women. A study of women from 1996 to 2006 showed that women who drank coffee had a 15% decreased risk of developing depression (Roberts). This may help to serve a broader meaning of why women would be more likely to purchase certain products-it makes them feel better and less depressed. Some further areas of research I would like to pursue is to repeat this study with a greater sample size. Furthermore, I would like to analyze such similar trends in purchases varying by sex among other products. With a larger sample size and different products, it would be easier to determine a general trend across the board. This way, we would know more definitively of the correlation between sex and the purchase of beverages, among other goods. Additionally, if possible, I would want to offer a

questionnaire, helping to rate the feeling of each individual, thereby serving to verify the results of the Coffee study. References: Roberts, Michelle. "Coffee May Prevent Depression, Scientists Say." BBC News. BBC, 26 Sept. 2011. Web. 04 Dec. 2013. Kelly, Samantha M. "Stereotype Debunked: Women Buy More Technology Than Me." Mashable, 9 Jan. 2012. Web. 04 Dec. 2013.

Feedback: Step1- Good, but please use the word "sex" instead of "gender". Gender implies a self-defined identity,
whereas sex is a biological category. Step2-Use sex, not gender terms (aka male/female, not men/women) Step3- Good