Statement of the Problem
For our Comprehensive Data Project, we had no doubt in our minds on what we wanted to do. As wrestlers who have to maintain our weight, we were very interested in comparing the weights of different athletes at NOHS. At first we wanted to compare the success of athletes along with their weight, but it was hard to measure success in team sports. The only real data that can be used as a determination of success in team sports (and across all sports) are All-SWC award, which not many people have. Hence, we decided to simple the research up to something that was still very interesting to us. Our study consisted of comparing the average weight of fall varsity athletes at NOHS with winter varsity athletes at NOHS. We believe that the average weight of fall varsity athletes at NOHS is greater than that of the winter varsity athletes at NOHS. This data can be furthered used in the future to help parents determine what sport their son/daughter could excel in based on their current weight. Although, anyone can participate in any sport, regardless of weight (to a certain degree), there are obvious advantages to weighing less or more in certain sports. Hence, hopefully this data can be used for more than just a fun research project. We hope this data can be used by parents interested in signing their kids up to play sports in the near future.
Abstract
The purpose of our study was to compare the average weight of fall varsity sport athletes at NOHS with winter varsity sport athletes at NOHS. We hypothesized that the average weight of the fall varsity sport athletes at NOHS was greater than that of the varsity winter sport athletes at NOHS. In order to confirm our hypothesis, we obtained a list of all the varsity fall and winter sport athletes from Mrs. Zergott in the athletic office. We put these names in Minitab and had Minitab randomly select 60 fall varsity athletes and 60 winter varsity athletes. Our sample was stratified into the fall and winter varsity athletes because there was much more fall varsity athletes as compared to winter varsity athletes (due to JV/Varsity football).
Upon selecting the 120 athletes, we proceeded to weigh them
all during various periods throughout the day. We obtained a
sample of 54 fall athletes and a sample of 44 winter athletes.
Thus, we obtained some nonresponse bias because not everyone was
comfortable with their weight. The nonresponse bias was limited
because we weighed the people as opposed to just a survey. By
weighing people, we actually eliminated response bias as well.
Both these samples were taken from a random sample and were above
30 so they were approximately normal according to the Central
Limit Theorem. Thus, we had two different samples and were able to
perform a two sample t-test with a 0.05 level of significance. Our
null hypothesis was that the varsity winter and varsity fall
sports athletes had the same average weight. Our alternate
hypothesis was that the fall varsity sport athletes had a greater
average weight that the average weight of the winter varsity sport
athletes. Our p-value was 0.518 which was way
above the alpha value of 0.05. Therefore, we failed to reject the
null hypothesis and have insufficient evidence to conclude that
the varsity fall sport athletes have a greater average weight than
the average weight of the winter varsity sport athletes.
Upon comparing the data using the mean, it is clearly seen
that the reason that the p-value was so high is because the winter
and fall sport athletes have a mean weight that is approximately
the same. The mean weight for fall varsity athletes was 152.7
pounds as compared to the mean weight for winter varsity athletes
which was 153.0 pounds. Seeing these values made us conclude that
the average weight of fall varsity sport athletes at NOHS is
approximately the same as the winter varsity sport athletes at
NOHS.