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This activity is a lead-in to the course project that comes in Modules 8 and 9. You will be asked to do something similar to this in another upcoming discussion and then in the course project at the end of the course. In a research project, the researcher normally has a research question in mind and then develops a research methodology that includes such things as determining the type of data that will be needed to address the question, how the data will be collected, and how the data will be analyzed. Due to time constraints, you will take a different approach to developing a research question. You will be given data that has already been collected and asked to develop a possible research question from the data.

For this discussion, open the StatCrunch file Housing_Prices_Categorical_Factors. The variables in the file are explained in the file description in StatCrunch. The following file tells you how to enroll in the course StatCrunch Group and retrieve group files. You will need to do that in order to view the Housing Prices file for this discussion activity.

Enrollment Instructions

Look at the description of the variables in the file and the variables themselves and develop a “research question” that might be interesting to explore using this data set. Some examples are:

Is there a difference in average selling price based on whether the house is on the water front or not?

Do new houses sell for more than old houses? NOTE: For something like this, you would have to define what you mean by new and old.

Develop your own research question and post it in the discussion. Be Creative! Don’t use one of the questions above and don't use one someone else has already posted. Instead, try to find something that might be interesting to you. In addition to posting your question, also tell what method or methods you would use to answer your question (of those studied so far).

You should post your initial response no later than the 4th day of the week. By the end of the week, return to the discussion forum and review your classmates' postings. Comment on at least two of them.