Mini Assignment 3

Samantha Fuller & Madison Swenson

University Nevada Las Vegas

COM 435 1001

TOPIC: Nutrition and Diets for College Students in the United States

Summarize the topic for your research proposal (about 4-6 sentences or 1 paragraph). Include any key concepts you are interested in studying and the context of your investigation. This should be a summary and update/revision of your mini-assignment #2.

We have changed our topic from Nutrition and Diet fads in the United States, to Nutrition and Diets for College Students in the United States. The reason for the change was to specify our topic more as we are most interested in people most similar to ourselves but also be able to narrow down our audience to college students or dietitians working with college students. We will be researching various college students in places across the United States and measure their nutrition. With this information we can properly access with diet is better for college students.

Draft your research purpose (i.e., thesis statement) for your research proposal.

The goal of this research project is to examine the diets and nutrition that college students have. In this paper we will be analysing how students can best perform in college by fueling themselves with the best type of nutrition.

List each variable you are going to study. For each variable, provide the conceptualization (i.e., scholarly definition and explanation). Be sure to cite sources to support your conceptualizations.

The variables we are going to study include…

college students- a individual enrolled in a university or college, typically ages 18 to 22

current states/cities – the territories one resides in

level of nutrition – the process of obtaining the food necessary for health and growth

Current diets – a special kind of food that one restricts oneself

Age- length of time one has lived

Sex- based of ones reproductive functions, male or female

What is/are your IV(s)? What is/are your DV(s)? Provide an explanation for why each variable is the IV and DV.

Independent Dependent

Diet 1. College student

Nutrition 2. age

States 3. Sex

Cities

An independent variable is defined as what we are studying with respect to how it impacts a dependent variable. Therefore college students, their age, and their sex is staying constant throughout the entire project making it the direct variables. Their diet, nurtrtion, state, and cities are being measured in relation to the student, their age, and their sex.

Will you have any mediators or moderators? If so, what are they?

If any, the moderators in our research project would be ourselves. Although neither of us are confined to a certain diet, we consider ourselves mostly healthy and on a good nutritional diet. Other than that we see no other moderator.

Will you have any covariates? If so, what are they?

No, so far we have not got any covariates yet as we are still in the planning process of putting our topic together as we have now decided the specific subject.

Based on how you have conceptualized each variable, what is the best level of measurement for each variable? Explain why.

We will be using nominal, interval, and and ordinal measurement for our project. For example for a question such as what is your gender? A nominal measurement will be used. But, for questions such as where do you live? An interval measurement will be used. Lastly, for questions such as how would you rank your nutrition? An ordinary measurement will be used.

State your H(s) or RQ(s) that your study proposal will aim to test or answer.

Our research question for this paper is: What type of diet should a college student have?