IS‘24: Practicum Assignment 5

Practicum Assignment 5: Hypothesis Testing the Menu

As with the previous two practicum activities, let us make some decisions about the Lamplighter and its customers to answer our research question. Starting on July 25, 2022, the Lamplighter introduced a new menu item in the hopes of improving business:

[Flanbé]
Forsberg’s Famous Flaming Flan

Some refer to this dish as “Flanbé,” and I appreciate the pun.

The Research Question

Is there evidence that the new menu item succeeded in its goal?

Collecting the Data

Again, use the Lamplighter data file that you have saved to your computer. Copy it from your Practicum folder and save it to your Practicum 5 folder. This will allow you (perhaps) to directly modify the data instead of trying to code the modifications.

Analyzing the Data

Use the data to correctly answer the research question.

Interpreting the Results

Interpret your analysis. Include appropriate univariate graphics. Make sure that you defend your choices (of analyses and of data). Spend a full, separate paragraph defending your decision on which data to use. Be explicit about what statistical procedures you ran and why you ran those procedures. Again, spend another full paragraph defending your choices of procedures. Your reader (me) should never have to guess about your analysis. If I have to guess, I will guess incorrectly.

Note that if you provide a point estimate, you will also need to provide a confidence interval for that estimate. Again, you will need to specify which part of the data you used and why you only used that part. Defend your decisions. However, just because you defend your decisions does not make the decisions correct. A part of your grade will be based on those decisions, not just how well you defend them.

Checklist

In additional to the general checklist (see the Overview), here is the particular checklist for this practicum activity.

Data subset decisions are correct and explicitly stated
Data analyzed appropriately, where decisions are explicit in the write-up
Statistics appropriately used to support conclusions
Appropriate univariate graphics provided
Paper written in a coherent manner
Appendix: All R Code is included in the appendix

Note

I am being less specific in this practicum, because I need you to make these decisions yourself. For instance, what does it mean to “improve business”? I also need you to clearly — and explicitly — explain your thought process. Be clear!

As always

Make sure you are presenting your results fully and in a meaningful manner. You may want to read your report to your friend to get helpful feedback about your writing and about the information you provide. Here are notes on Practicum Activity 5 that tells you what sections are needed and what needs to be in each section.

Introductory Statistics

IS: Business Practicum Assignment 5