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Project Summary
| Difficulty | 8 |
| Time required | Very Long (several weeks to months) |
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| * Note: This is an abbreviated project idea, without notes to start your background research or a procedure for how to do the experiment. You can identify abbreviated project ideas by the asterisk at the end of the title. If you want a project idea with full instructions, please pick one without an asterisk. |
Abstract
Is there a correlation between birth order and grade point average? Design a survey study to find out. How many completed surveys do you need for a representative sample of your school? If you limit your survey to one school, would you expect it to be representative of a larger population (such as your county or state?) How do you control for potential effects of parental age at birth? (In other words, younger siblings will have a higher probability of being born to older parents. If there is an apparent correlation between birth order and grade point average, can you distinguish the variable "birth order" from the variable "parental age at birth"?) Can you think of any other potentially confounding variables? This project involves fairly sophisticated statistical analysis. Finding a mentor with expertise in multivariate statistical analysis is highly recommended. (Simpson and Yandell, 2003)Bibliography
Simpson, C. and Yandell, K., 2003. " '1, 2, 3 As Easy As A, B, C' Myth or Fact: Does Birth Order Affect Your Grade Point Average?" California State Science Fair Project Abstract [accessed February 1, 2006] http://www.usc.edu/CSSF/History/2003/Projects/J1720.pdf.Variations
- For more science project ideas in this area of science, see Sociology Project Ideas.
Last edit date: 2007-03-07 19:41:41
Career Focus
If you like this project, you might want to think about career opportunities in
Sociology.
Any time there is more than one person in a room, there is potential for a social interaction to occur or for a group to form. Sociologists study these interactions—how and why groups and societies form, and how outside events like health issues, technology, and crime affect both the societies and the individuals. If you already like to think about how people interact as individuals and in groups, then you're thinking like a sociologist! Learn more about this career: Sociologist.
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