Factors Affecting University Student Grades

Aiman Ahmed

Co-Presenters: Christopher Vallas

College: The Dorothy and George Hennings College of Science, Mathematics and Technology

Major: Computer Science

Faculty Research Mentor: Ching-yu Huang

Abstract:

External factors and lifestyle choices can greatly determine the academic performance of students of all ages. This study aims to figure out if said factors are the root cause of a university student’s success or failure. We will use the ‘Factors Affecting University Grades’ dataset as the basis of our study. The dataset contains over 10,000 records and over 35 features. The features pertaining to this study will be study hours, attendance, sleep patterns, screen time, nutrition and grades. We will extract the data from the student records database and place it under a CSV file. We will then transform the data by removing any empty or null values, converting categorical data into numerical data, and normalizing said numerical features for improved analysis. And finally, we will load the data by storing the data into our class database and visualizing it through Python. Our methodology for the processed data will include the following: performing basic statistical analysis to find averages and correlations within our data, visualization techniques (eg. bar charts, scatter plots, etc.) to identify possible trends and outliers, and performing simple regression analysis to examine relationships between study habits, lifestyle, and grades. Our study also seeks to answer some hypotheses from the dataset. Questions such as:Do students with higher study hours achieve higher grades?Do poor sleep patterns (low hours of sleep) negatively impact grades?Can an increase of screen time result in lower academic performance?Do students with a balanced diet have better grades than those with unhealthy diets?This study will provide the answer to these aforementioned questions