Statistics Coursework Plan Essay Example for Free

Statistics Coursework Plan Essay In this project, I will be investigating how accurately students can estimate an angle size and the length of a line. I am investigating it to see if age, gender and mathematical capabilities have an effect on how accurate students can estimate a length of a line and an angle size. I will be using secondary raw data which is given to me to my teacher who has collected the data from other students. The accuracy of the data is unknown and also human errors are also likely Outliers and anomalies distort the mean of the data taking it to either of the two extremes. To avoid any Outliers or anomalies affecting the accuracy of this study, I will remove them before taking the sample size of around 80-100 students and I will be using stratified sampling so each category categorized by gender, age and maths set have a equal proportion in the sample as in the total population so the results are as accurate as possible. Any outliers which I may have missed can be eliminated by using the formula – Q1-(1.5)*(IQR) or Q3+(1.5)*(IQR). The three hypotheses I will be investigating will be: Boys estimate the lengths of a line and angle sizes better than girls. – I will be investigating this as boys tend to partake in activities which involve measuring more than girls and so are better than girls at estimating lengths of a line and angle sizes. Year 8 students estimate the angle sizes and lengths of a line better than Year 10 students. – I will be investigating this because Year 8’s may not have the pressure of other subjects yet as they do not have any real exams however Year 10 students may have been preoccupied with other thoughts and so are less accurate at estimating the lengths of a line and angle sizes. Students who are better at estimating the lengths of a line are also good at estimating the angle sizes. – I will be investigating this as students who are good at estimating one are likely to be better at estimating the other as they have good estimation and measuring skills.

Causation and Moral Responsibility for Death Essay -- Euthanasia Physi

Causation and Moral Responsibility for Death ABSTRACT: The distinction between killing and letting die has been a controversial element in arguments about the morality of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. The killing/letting die distinction is based on causation of death. However, a number of causal factors come into play in any death; it is impossible to state a complete cause of death. I argue that John Mackie’s analysis of causation in terms of ‘inus factors,’ insufficient but non-redundant parts of unnecessary but sufficient conditions, helps us to see that moral responsibility for death cannot rest on causation alone. In specifying the cause of death, some factors can be considered alternatively as either causal factors or merely parts of the presupposed background conditions. If a factor is moved from the background field into the causal field, the result is a changed background field. Comparisons of cases of killing and letting die often do just this; hence, the cases depend on different pres uppositions and the causation cannot be directly compared. Moral judgments determine how to apportion factors to the causal and background fields. The distinction between killing and letting die has been used by many to condemn euthanasia and assisted suicide while giving approbation to withdrawing life-support systems in at least some patients. In the recent United States Supreme Court decision which denies a right to physician-assisted suicide, Chief Justice Rehnquist writes that "when a patient refuses life sustaining medical treatment, he dies from an underlying fatal disease or pathology; but if a patient ingests lethal medication prescribed by a physician, he is killed by that medication." (1) It is doubtful, ho... ..., no.3 (1976): 15-16. (7) John Mackie, The Cement of the Universe: A Study of Causation, paperback edition (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980). (8) Ibid., 60-62. (9) Ibid., 63. (10) Ibid., 66-67. This statement of a "gappy" universal is fundamentally the same as Mackie’s, but I have altered the formulation for consistency. (11) O.H. Green, "Killing and Letting Die," American Philosophical Quarterly 17 (1980): 195-204, and Helga Kuhse, The Sanctity-of-Life Doctrine in Medicine: A Critique (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987). (12) Kuhse, 50-51. (13) Ibid., 67-68. (14) Ibid., 68. (15) President’s Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research, Deciding to Forego Life-Sustaining Treatment: Ethical, Medical, and Legal Issues in Treatment Decisions (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1983), 69.

John Berger Essay Essay

While in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, I traveled through the different galleries and their various cultures; discovering all sorts of arts from Contemporary art, to American art, Japanese art, and even the Egyptian art where I could appreciate the complexity of mummies. Throughout all these diverse cultures of art, I was questioning myself and started to wonder how I could understand art beyond others’ opinion about them. Moreover, I realized that it was a question John Berger, critic of art and author of the Ways of Seeing, raised in his essay, and it is a question that will always be raised while demanding how to understand a certain art. Walking through a room where various French artists had their paintings exposed, I fell in front of the artwork (see above) painted by Paul Gauguin. I did not choose a French artist to make me remember the French culture that I am missing here in Boston, nor to pretend that the French are advanced in art, but a way to analyze and understand, with the experience of a famous art critic, an artwork from an artist who astonished me in my previous art classes. D’ou venons-nous, Qui sommes-nous, Ou allons-nous? By Paul Gauguin I chose a painting that had a warm expression, and complex story emanating from it. As the title of my essay indicates, the title of the painting translated in English is â€Å"Where are we from? Who are we? Where are we going? So many questions in the title and the painting, but there were as much coming through my mind while studying this image. This artwork is very ambiguous because I do not know how to start looking at it. I can observe people appearing half naked in the foreground, but we cannot really tell why they appear there. The statue in the back makes the questioning more obscure. It seems lik e an Oracle that gives people their destiny, and that is maybe why they all look so sad. Truly, I felt that this image was a representation of my origin country, West Indies, by the color Gauguin used. He used the blue to symbolize the ocean surrounding the island, and the mixed race of the habitants by the warm and beige color or the characters. I felt as if I was in the center of the painting, more precisely in the position of the child being observed in the right corner, and waiting to be reassured. I also felt like the person in the middle of the painting, standing up and waiting for answers while traveling through this painting. Gauguin’s artworks are extremely complicated to decipher, so are they to analyze. Gauguin is an artist I studied back in France in my art classes. Consequently, I had seen many of his works, and even the painting I chose; However, I had never asked myself how knowing about his life could help me study his paintings. I was taught in my art classes how to analyze art in a more technical way than in an analytical way like Berger supported. Indeed, when we were looking at the entire structure of the painting with my art class method, we were focusing on the brush strokes, the color, the tone, lines and forms, and the composition of the painting. If I had to describe the work of art I chose based on technical features, I would examine the painting saying that the brush strokes could express many emotions at the same time, and describe the painter style and art movement. Gauguin was also part of the post-impressionist painters with artists such as Paul Cezanne or Van Gogh. Post impressionist art was more focused on color, lines, outlines and perspective. Concerning Gauguin, the complexity of shapes is very important in his paintings due to their abstract significations. In fact, the lines were not straight; they were round and suggesting bodies that we did not see in art before. Moreover, the color had its importance. Post impressionist artists like Gauguin used color and color combination in order to create ‘vulgar’, ‘calm’ or ‘bold’ impressions (Robert Hughes). The analysis of the painting I just did was very technical and structural, but in no sense relevant for understanding the thought process as Berger explained. I was subject to mystification as John Berger explained in his essay as â€Å"the process of explaining away what might otherwise be evident† (103). Indeed, mystification appeared while I was looking at the painting. I could sense a certain limit of my understanding due to the previous art classes I had. In other terms, it meant for me that words were coming before seeing whereas seeing should come before words as Berger deciphered in his essay. My mind was already set for a certain critic about the painting based on the knowledge I had; Consequently, I could not have another point of view vis-a-vis the painting I was staring at. Although I learned a lot from my art classes, especially how to describe an artwork contextually, the observations and point of view of Berger about art gave me enough elements o have a complete analysis of an image, both contextually and historically. Using Berger as a guide for art description helped me to learn more about the painting historically, and much more about the painter himself to have a complete understanding of the artwork. Prior to this assignment, it had never occurred to me to use the biography and the background of the painter in order to facilitate my understanding of the painting. When Berger quoted â€Å"When we see a landscape, we situate ourselves in the it. If we saw the art of the past, we would situate ourselves in history. † (100) in the essay led me to start the analysis of Gauguin’s painting in a very different way. Actually, when I focused more on the painter’s life, and follow Berger’s analysis, I learned that Gauguin wanted to commit suicide after he painted this image. Plus, even though there was a caption under the image saying that it was his last painting, I would not have noticed that it was his last painting, which refers to what Berger described when he talked about Van Gogh’s last painting. Berger cited â€Å"The way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe† (97). Clearly, it means that the details you know about a certain painting will prevent you from analyzing it innocently. Based on the art experience I acquired in class, I would have said that the image implies sadness because of the choice of colors, which were darker than his previous works. However, I think that the title gives us more details about his thoughts while he was painting. Through reading of artistic reviews or even my art book, named Shock of the New by Robert Hughes, I discovered that this work of art should be read from right to left, with the three main groups of people illustrating the questions that are asked in the title. The first group with the three women looking at the child represents the beginning of Gauguin’s life, making a reference to his parents, then there is the group in the middle which symbolizes all the experiences he went through while being a young adult. The last group shows an old lady close to death because of the darker color he used, moreover, there is an odd white bird at her feet, which could represent the guide to heaven. In the background of the painting, there is a blue statute, which represents what Gauguin described as the hereafter. This painting seems like a flash back of his life, and these three questions lead us to comprehend him better. Gauguin left a lot of non-answered questions about this painting, considered as a testimony to his life by many critics of art. Indeed, this painting is very complex. I learned by reading my previous art book, that Gauguin wrote a letter to his friend stipulating the reasons of the painting. In this letter, Gauguin said that he had decided to commit suicide in December; therefore, he wanted to paint on a huge canvas all the things he had on his mind for so long. Things he absolutely wanted to paint before his death. In this letter, Gauguin also confessed that the value of this painting is so much ahead of his precedents, and that it was a one of a kind that he could not nor would not try to produce a better painting. This sentence clearly explains that he reached the height of his life, and that now he drew this painting, there was nothing else he could do better or similar except terminate his life. Gauguin was wondering a lot about the existence of the world, and this perpetual questioning led him to the entitlement of this painting. As I said earlier in my essay, each group of people appearing in this painting is applied to a specific question of the title. Those questions made me think about my own life. Indeed, the questions he used are somehow important to everyone to really understand the meaning of their lives. Berger said â€Å"The way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe† (97). While looking at this painting, I could recognize some events of my life, for instance, I could recall where I am from and what are my origins, as well as how I did to accomplish such academic success and arrive in the United States. Furthermore, due to my art background, I could understand better the expression and feelings Gauguin was trying to deliver in this painting with his powerful colors and thick traits. Approaching art is not easy at first glance, thus approaching it with different methods makes it more difficult to understand. Throughout my life, I have been able to view art in many different context, either artistically speaking when I was in art classes in France, or analytically this year when I had to analyze art with the support of an art critic opinions. For me, both ways were complementary to each other and drastically improved my understanding of art. Complementary in the sense that I could rely on my technical knowledge of art to understand the structure of a painting, and also analyze the story of the painting as Berger mentioned to fully understand the underlying message of an artwork.

The Sociological Phenomenon Of Bowdoin - 1588 Words

Bowdoin College, better known as the Bowdoin bubble, has within it sociological phenomenon that helps it maintain social cohesion. One of these social phenomenon is the Bowdoin hello. The Bowdoin hello is the act of students greeting one another on campus and downtown. However, the practice of this tradition has extended itself to people in cars at crosswalks and random people on the Bowdoin campus. This phenomenon maintains social cohesion on campus because it attempts draws together a community that is constantly changing. With the incoming diversity on campus it serves to reaffirm what Bowdoin stands for, a welcoming community for everyone. The Bowdoin hello creates a norm, which in turn creates an identity of what a Bowdoin student†¦show more content†¦I will examine the material that they distribute to the incoming class that pertains to etiquette and norms displayed on campus. Then I will engage in informal conversations ethnographically as a complete participant with students about their views and uses of the Bowdoin hello. By immersing myself as a complete participant I will be able to receive answers that have more credibility. I will also utilize my personal experiences from when I entered Bowdoin as a first-year and I will attempt to breach the phenomenon to observe the outcome. The social location, which is Bowdoin’s campus, will enable my ability to observe the phenomenon because it is exclusive to Bowdoin. However, my social location might constrain my ability in that reactions might be bias for or against the phenomenon depending on whether the person uses this custom or not. I believe this i s the best method because it will enable me to see how this norm is introduced and manifested over time in the community. Before entering Bowdoin students are told on campus tours and in info sessions about customs that are particular to Bowdoin. They are told that a Bowdoin student strives for the common good and engages in the Bowdoin hello. While on the tour they see their tour guide wave hello to all the people that pass by whether they know them or not. However, this is not the case when you are actually a student on campus and there are not any