project_argument/proposal.md

Project proposal

This planning document will also form the introduction of your argument.

Overarching Question

What central question are you interested in exploring? Why are you interested in exploring this question?

How do students’ daily lifestyle habits—such as study time, sleep, physical activity, and social engagement—affect their academic performance and stress levels? This question is important because academic success is often viewed through the narrow lens of study hours alone, while other lifestyle factors may play equally significant roles. As students navigate demanding academic environments, understanding how their choices outside the classroom impact their GPA and well-being can lead to more effective support systems and healthier routines. I’m interested in this question because I want to be able to bridge academic performance with holistic wellness, offer insights that could inform school policies, counseling programs, and personal time management strategies. This topic resonates with broader conversations about student mental health and the importance of balance in education. By analyzing these relationships we can move beyond anecdotal advice and provide evidence-based recommendations.

What specific research questions will you investigate?

• Which lifestyle factors (study hours, sleep, physical activity, social time) are most strongly correlated with GPA?
• Is there a threshold of study hours beyond which GPA plateaus or declines?
• How do students with high stress levels differ in lifestyle habits compared to those with low stress?
• Are there clusters of students with similar lifestyle profiles and academic outcomes?

Data source

What data set will you use to answer your overarching question?

Student Lifestyle Dataset Link: https://www.kaggle.com/datasets/steve1215rogg/student-lifestyle-dataset

Where is this data from?

This dataset was published on Kaggle by Sumit Kumar. It was created for educational and analytical purposes.The data was self-reported by students who participated in the survey through Google Forms. The form was shared with students across different educational institutions, primarily focusing on those in India and other South Asian countries, where the CGPA system is widely used. This ensures that the dataset is contextually relevant to the educational environment in these regions.

What is this data about?

This dataset, titled "Daily Lifestyle and Academic Performance of Students", contains data from 2,000 students collected via a Google Form survey. It includes information on study hours, extracurricular activities, sleep, socializing, physical activity, stress levels, and CGPA. The data covers an academic year from August 2023 to May 2024 and reflects student lifestyles. This dataset can help analyze the impact of daily habits on academic performance and student well-being.

File Name: Daily_Lifestyle_and_Academic_Performance.csv File Format: CSV Number of Records: 2000 rows Number of Columns: 8 columns Column Names: Student ID, Study Hours, Extracurricular Hours, Sleep Hours, Social Hours, Physical Activity Hours, Stress Level, CGPA

Methods

How will you use your data set to answer your quantitative questions?

• Correlation Analysis (RQ1):
  • Calculate correlation coefficients between GPA and each lifestyle variable.
  • Visualize using a heatmap and summarized in a correlation table.
• Threshold Analysis (RQ2):
  • Create scatter plots and fit regression curves to explore how GPA changes with increasing study hours.
  • Identify any inflection points where additional study time no longer improves GPA.
• Group Comparison (RQ3):
  • Group by stress level (Low, Moderate, High) and compare average lifestyle habits using bar charts and box plots.
  • test for statistically significant differences.
• Clustering (RQ4):
  • Use K-means clustering to group students based on their lifestyle habits.
  • Visualize using radar charts and compare by average GPA and stress level.