How do students perceive their weight?

Introduction Media plays an important role in influencing people's opinions and choices. Especially in terms of body images, the media has created certain ideal body images, which are continuously being flashed via various mass media. The magazines, newspapers, television, radio as well as the Internet are full of images of slim and slender models, which are often perceived as the most-sought-after or desirable body image. (http://www.buzzle.com/articles/medias-influence- on-eating-disorders.html 25 February 2012)

Introduction Data was collected on an internet- based survey from students at the University of Auckland enrolled in Stage 1 Statistics in 2009. Students received 2 marks towards their first assignment if they completed the survey. Amongst other variables, this survey recorded students actual weight (in kgs) and their ideal weight (in kgs)

Investigative question Problem How do students perceive their weight? We will look at the difference between their actual weight and their ideal weight to answer this question. Investigative question What is the median of the difference between actual weight and ideal weight for students enrolled in Stage 1 Statistics at the University of Auckland in 2009?

Plan We will use a simple random sample of size 50 of the students from the stage 1 statistics students at the University of Auckland in 2009 that completed the internet-based survey. From our SRS, we will calculate an informal confidence interval for the population median difference between actual weight and ideal weight.

Data I sampled for you

Analysis

Analysis Student Task Use the formula to construct an informal confidence interval for the population median for the samples of 30 kiwis below. Copy the sample box plot and draw the informal confidence interval (in red) onto the box

Analysis Student Task

Conclusion Use your interval from the sample above to complete the conclusion From the sample data, I am pretty sure that the median of the difference between actual weight and ideal weight for students enrolled in Stage 1 Statistics at the University of Auckland in 2009 is between ____ and ____.

Conclusion What does this mean? (in this context)