ATHK1001: Analytical Thinking
Semester 1, 2012
Assessment for Analysis and Interpretation
This document should have your name and SID written at the top
.
Test details. The test itself will require you to defend your opinion based on the results of your analysis. You will not need to perform further calculations at this point, but you will need to be able to understand your analysis strategy sufficiently to be able to argue your case effectively and creatively. You will need to refer to your pages of supporting material throughout the test.
An excel sheet is attached that will help you with the tables, frequencies etc.
Assessment Task
You open your email to find the following document……
On the 15th of April, 1912, the world was given the news that the unsinkable ship, HMS Titanic, had sunk. When all rescue efforts had come to an end, only 701 of the 2193 people who had been on board were recovered alive. It became clear as the disaster unfolded that loss of life would be unavoidable as the Titanic had been fitted with lifeboats to accommodate no more than 1178 people. So the passengers of the Titanic were left to determine amongst themselves who would be saved and who would be lost.
The beliefs of the time and the associated standards of behaviour dictated several rules by which the life and death decisions should have been made:
1. Ladies First: Edwardian gallantry demanded that men at all times should sacrifice their own preferences, even their own lives, for the sake of women and children. If this rule were adhered to, the survivors of the Titanic should be mainly women and children, with places on lifeboats only going to men once all of the women and children were safely aboard.
2. Excellence of the Nobility: The upper class was supposed to be not only more wealthy and powerful, but more noble of character than the lesser classes. If this were true, the rules of gallantry should have been demonstrated most clearly by the first class passengers, with standards of behaviour dropping for second class passengers, and again dropping for third class passengers and crew.
A third theory has also been put forward to explain the behaviour of the different classes:
3. Middle Class Saints: It has been supposed that the most morally-driven people in a class system are those in the middle class. This is because the upper class is tempted to turn events to their own advantage, thinking they can get away with it, while the lower class is most intent on survival, making them less inclined to sacrifice their desires for the sake of others. If this is true, the men travelling in second class should have behaved in more self-sacrificing way than the men travelling in either first class or third class (or in the crew).
One final factor has been included for consideration, and this one is not directly linked to class structure: Weight of luggage. Some passengers on the Titanic were there with the intention of permanently moving to America, whilst others were merely there for a holiday. The reason for each passenger’s presence on the Titanic may have influenced the weight of their luggage. It is possible that passengers with larger amounts of luggage wasted precious time trying to save their belongings or trying to bring items aboard life boats, thus affecting the survival rate. Was weight of luggage related to survival rate? Was there a relationship perhaps between survival and luggage weight for one class or gender group in particular?ATHK1001 Analytical Thinking
…. The email was a follow-up to a conversation you had over lunch yesterday. You were asked to this lunch a week ago, when you were first contacted by an historian who is writing a new book about Edwardian society, and who plans to draw on evidence from the Titanic disaster. She obtained complete data for the passengers on board – whether they were men, women or children, which class they were travelling in, and whether they survived the event. She has also linked information she recently obtained regarding the weight of luggage each passenger had with them on the ship*. She thinks this data might hold some firmer answers to some of the theories regarding what the primary drivers of behaviour were in the relevant era. She has confessed, however, that she has no idea what to do with this data to get the answers she is after. After hearing your name mentioned as someone who knows how to analyse data, she decided to contact you to ask you to help.
She has given you the data (file called TitanicData.xlsx, downloadable from ATHK1001 eLearning site). What she wants to know is which of her three theories, if any, are supported by the actual data from the Titanic event. She also wants to know whether weight of luggage was significantly different for those who perished in comparison to those who survived, but she suspects that any effects for luggage will only be found in specific subgroups of gender and class. She needs facts and figures to include in her book, and some explanation of what the tables and graphs mean.
Your task:
• Prepare a two (A4) page response to the theories suggested based on your analysis of the dataset. Your response should include:
oA table summarising the information in the dataset in a succinct way (ie, a table of frequencies, and/or a table of group means);
oAt least one relevant graph (include more if they are relevant);
oThe results of at least one statistical test e.g. z-test, t-test, null hypothesis etc (again, do more if necessary);
oAnything else that is relevant to your analysis of the data and the formation of your conclusions. You will not need a references section, nor will you need to follow any particular formatting or subsection rules.
Why did you use this particular type of statistical test?
Does the statistical test you use prove the theories?