discussion...

 Our project had a few weaknesses.  First, we had some sampling bias. Some of the girls that were randomly chosen didn't carry purses or did not want to be surveyed.  To avoid skewing the data, we threw these measurements.  Also, we realized that period of the day might have been a  factor on if the girls had food in their purse.  We measured purse weights at 2 different periods of the day, third and tenth.  Third is the last period before lunch and 10th is the period after the lunch periods.  We noticed that many more of the girls we measured 10th carried food, which might be due to the fact they already had lunch.  Also we might have had some measurement bias.  To measure the purses by measuring my weight holding the purse.  To take out most of the affect this had, we measured my weight each day.  Even though we did this, there are some unavoidable affects to measuring like this.

 

 

Extrapolation...

We feel that the original population is the only thing these results can be applied to.  Our design had a few weaknesses and the relations we found in our study could be unique to our sampling population.  Also, to shorten the area our findings could be applied to would make no sense.  Applying them to girls that carry purses at north Olmsted high school is the only population that makes sense.

 

Suggestion...

In the future, to make this study more reliable, I would change a few things.  First, I would get all the data at the same time in the day before lunch.  This way the factor of if the girl had had lunch yet.  To extrapolate the results to a larger population, I would collect data from a variety of schools in different locations all over the area of interest.