Mick Monsereenusorn 8E

Mathematics Statistics Report

Do Year 8 Boys or Girls Do More Homework?

Introduction:
During the statistic unit year 8 each had to create their own research question and find an answer to it. My question is that do boys or girls in year 8 do more homework. To find out I sent a survey to all year 8 students asking for how much homework they do in one week. I used the program survey monkey and asked them how much homework they do in one week. I gave them the choices 0-60 minutes, 61-120 minutes, 121-180 minutes, 181-240 minutes, 241-300 minutes and 300 minutes or more.

My Research Question: Do year 8 boys or girls do more homework? My hypothesis: I think that girls do more homework than boys. Area of Interaction:
The area of interaction that I want to reference is approaches to learning (ATL). ATL is the area of interaction that relates the most to this task. We have to do a lot of thinking when we make this survey. When I made the survey I had to think a lot. I had to think if my questions made sense or not. Also I had to think about the possibility that some people would lie so I choose answer choices that are mostly sensible. I also had to think a lot about the results. I had to make sense of the results and then I had to find out the answer to my research question and to proof my answer. Another way it is connected to ATL is because homework is about our learning. The survey is about peoples learning and how they learn. It is also about how much they do homework and how much they care about learning.

Mick Monsereenusorn 8E

Mathematics Statistics Report

Time Spent On Homework (minutes) 0-60 61-120 121-180 181-240 241-300 300+

Boys 6 6 4 1 3 7

Girls 3 7 8 8 3 9

Note: My homework times are a range.

To find BX and GX (frequency times boys or girls) we

have to have a class center. To find the class center is to add the two numbers and divide by two. For the times like 61-120 if divided it will be a decimal. I decided to make it 90 instead of 90.5 so we can easily calculate. Also for the row that says 300 or more minutes I had to continue the pattern on the other lines. The other lines we had the pattern is to add the smaller number by 30. For example 0-60 the average is 30. 30 is also 0 +30. The average for 300 would be 300 + 30 which equals 330. Also because we dont know how much people spent on homework exactly for 300+ minutes the range cant be found. That means I wont calculate the range for this task.

Frequency Distribution Table Homework Time (x) 0-60 61-120 121-180 181-240 241-300 300+
Mode:
Boys: 300+ occurs 7 times Girls: 300+ occurs 9 times

Class Center 30 90 150 210 270 330

Frequency for Boys (B) 6 6 4 1 3 7 = 27

Bx

Frequency for Girls (G) 180 3 540 7 600 8 210 8 810 3 2310 9 = 4650 = 38

Gx 90 630 1200 1680 810 2970 = 7380

Median:
Boys = the frequency for the boys is 27. The middle is 14. The number 14 is in the 121-180 boxes. Girls = the frequency for girls is 38. The middle is 19 and 20. 19 and 20 is in the 181-240 boxes.

Mean:
Boys 172.2

Mick Monsereenusorn 8E

Mathematics Statistics Report

Girls

=194.2

Graph:

Year 8 Boys and Girls' Weekly Homework Time

10 9 8 7 Frequency 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 0-60 61-120 121-180 181-240 241-300 300+ Time (Minutes) Boys Girls

I chose to represent my data in a bar chart because I wanted to compare the boys and girls and to be able to show the differences. I also wanted the data to be easy to see so I chose the bar chart. The bar chart enables us to see it clearly and for us to be able to compare two sets of results. I think I have collected enough results. I used the program survey monkey to be able to collect results from people. The program has been very successful because I have had 65 results. This means that Ive interviewed more than half of year 8. One of the reasons I think it has been successful is that my survey is easy to answer and short. I also sent it fast and early so I had a lot of time for people to start replying. The calculation that is most useful for my research question is probably the mean. My answers are in a wide range so the mode and median arent very useful. The mean can find the average times and compare the two. Another reason is that the number of survey answers from girls and boys is different. It is better to use the average to compare the answers. I think most of my data is probably true and valid. It is possible for people to do less than an hour or more than 5 hours of homework in one week. There is always the possibility of people not answering truthfully but Im pretty sure everyone was honest and shared the truth. I made my answer choices instead of boxes so people wont be able to write something off topic. I also made my question clear and made it make sense so people will understand it and not answer it incorrectly.

Mick Monsereenusorn 8E

Mathematics Statistics Report

Conclusion:
Based on my facts I have decided that year 8 girls spend more time on homework than boys. This is based on two factors. The median and mean of the times year 8 students spend on homework every week. The boys median times are 121-180 minutes and the girls are 181-240 minutes. Also the average time a boy spends on homework in one week is 172.2 minutes and an average girl spends 194.2 minutes. This also shows that girls spend more time on homework than boys. Based upon these two facts that Ive found out girls spend more time on homework than boys. On average, a girl spends 22 more minutes on homework than boys every week. This conclusion is most likely accurate because I have interviewed a large number of people and made calculations to find the average number of all calculations. The average shows that there is a moderate difference between girls and boys. There is approximately 12 percent difference between the two numbers. This is big enough to show that there is a difference. There are many ways I could make my survey better. I could change the last box and expand it. Instead of 300+ I might have 301-360, 361-420 and 421+. I think that would help me know the number better than just 300+. The number could be just 301 or as high as 500. Another way I could have improved the questions was to narrow the ranges. Instead of 0-60 I could do 0-30 and 31-60 minutes. This will make my answers more detailed and correct because we have a better idea about how much time people spend on homework. If I do these steps next time I might have a more correct and accurate information. This will help me to be able to find better results and to get more precise information.