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Reading Assignments - Math 141 Introductory Statistics - Spring 2016

Be sure to check back, because this may change during the semester.

All numbers indicate chapters from Intro Stats, 4th Edition by De Veaux, Velleman, and Bock

For Tuesday February 2

Chapter 1. Stats Starts Here
Chapter 2. Displaying and Describing Categorical Data
Chapter 3. Displaying and Summarizing Quantitative Data

To read: Skim Chapter 1; Focus on Section 2.2; Skim Chapter 3; You can skip Section 3.7. We'll talk about the standard deviation in more detail next week.
FYI, this is the longest reading assignment for the semester, so don't be overwhelmed by the length.

Reading Questions

  1. A school administration collects data on the students attending the school. Which of the following are categorical? Why?
    Grade Point Average, Class Year, Whether the student has taken the SAT
  2. Consider the cells for Alive and First in the contingency Tables 2.6 and 2.7. Explain the difference between the value 9.2% in Table 2.6 and the value 28.6% in Table 2.7.
  3. Consider the histogram given in Exercise 37 of Chapter 3. Describe the distribution in a few sentences (shape, center, spread, unusual features)

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For Thursday February 4

Chapter 4. Understanding and Comparing Distributions

To read: Emphasize sections 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, and skim the remainder of the chapter.

Reading Questions

  1. What is the author's motivation for using boxplots, rather than histograms, in Figure 4.3 to compare the monthly data shown in the histogram in Figure 4.1?
  2. What two approaches should you definitely avoid when your data has outliers?
  3. What is the motivation for taking the logarithm of CEO compensation to display the histogram in Figure 4.8?

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For Tuesday February 9

Chapter 5. The Standard Deviation as a Ruler and the Normal Model

To read: Emphasize Sections 5.1-5.4 and skim Section 5.5.

Reading Questions

  1. Which is further from the mean, a data value with a z-score of 1.3 or a data value with a z-score of -1.5? Why?
  2. What is the difference between a parameter and a statistic?
  3. In a normal distribution, what percentage of the distribution lies within 1 standard deviation of the mean?

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For Thursday February 11

Chapter 15. Sampling Distribution Models

To read: All, but you can skip Section 15.3. Be sure to emphasize Section 15.4.

Reading Questions

  1. What does each data point in a sampling distribution represent?
  2. In a couple of sentences, explain the idea of the Central Limit Theorem in your own words.
  3. What are the assumptions and conditions necessary for the Normal model to work well as a model of the sampling distribution of a sample proportion? (You do not need to explain these assumptions and conditions. We'll talk about them in detail in class.)

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For Tuesday February 16

Chapter 15. Sampling Distribution Models
Chapter 16. Confidence Intervals for Proportions

To read: Re-read Sections 15.4 and 15.5. Read all of Chapter 16, and emphasize Section 16.2.

Reading Questions

  1. In two or three sentences, explain the idea of a confidence interval for a parameter in your own words.
  2. Why is it important in creating a confidence interval for a proportion p to know that that the sampling distribution for p-hat is normal?

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For Thursday February 18

Chapter 16. Confidence Intervals for Proportions

Re-read the chapter, but no Reading Questions for today.

For Tuesday February 23

No Reading Assignment for today.

For Thursday February 25

Exam 1 today. No Reading Assignment due.

For Tuesday March 1

Chapter 17. Testing Hypotheses About Proportions

To read: All, and pay special attention to the complete example beginning on page 458.

Reading Questions

  1. What is the null hypothesis H0 of a hypothesis test?
  2. What is the alternative hypothesis HA of a hypothesis test?
  3. What does the P-value of a hypothesis test tell you about H0?

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For Thursday March 3

Chapter 18. Inferences About Means

To read: All. This is very similar to the material in Chapters 16 & 17 but applied to population means rather than population proportions.

Reading Questions

  1. Why do we need to use the Student's t-model for inferences about means rather than the techniques from Chapter 17?
  2. What are the two assumptions necessary to use the Student's t-model?

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For Tuesday March 8

Chapter 19. More About Tests and Intervals

To read: Up to the section on Power on page 518

Reading Questions

  1. Why is α=0.05 often used as the level of significance in hypothesis testing?
  2. Explain the difference between a Type I and Type II error.

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For Thursday March 10

Chapter 20. Comparing Groups

To read: Through Section 20.5

Reading Question

    Why do we pool the samples in a two-proportion z-test but not in a two-proportion z-interval?

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For Tuesday March 22

Chapter 20. Comparing Groups

Finish reading the chapter, but no Reading Questions for today.

For Thursday March 24

Chapter 21. Paired Samples and Blocks

To read: Through Section 21.3

Reading Question

    Explain the difference between a paired t-test and a two sample t-test. Give an example to explain when you would use one over the other.

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For Tuesday March 29

Chapter 24. Analysis of Variance

To read: All, but you can de-emphasize Section 24.2 and skip the section Bonferroni Multiple Comparisons. Notice that this Chapter is included on the CD that came with the book. It is also posted at the onCourse site.

Reading Questions

  1. What is the difference between ANOVA and the two-sample t-tests from Chapter 20?
  2. Why is a test comparing population means called analysis of variance?

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For Thursday March 31

Chapter 24. Analysis of Variance

Re-read the chapter, but no Reading Questions for today.

For Tuesday April 5

The Big Picture. No Reading Assignment for today.

For Thursday April 7

Exam 2 today. No Reading Assignment due.

For Tuesday April 12

Chapter 6. Scatterplots, Association, and Correlation
Chapter 7. Linear Regression

To read: All, but you can skip Section 6.4 Straightening Scatterplots

Reading Questions

  1. What does the correlation coefficient r measure?
  2. What is the purpose of regression?

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For Thursday April 14

Chapter 8. Regression Wisdom

To read: All, but no Reading Questions for today.

Also read the two short articles Judges Replacing Conjecture With Formula for Bail and LJAF-research-summary PSA-Court posted at onCourse. They give an interesting application of regression.

For Tuesday April 19

Chapter 23. Inferences for Regression

To read: Sections 23.1 and 23.2, and read the example beginning on pg 656 carefully.

Reading Question

    What is the purpose of this chapter? Explain in your own words in a few sentences.

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For Thursday April 21

Chapter 25. Multiple Regression

To read: Sections 25.1, 25.2 and 25.3. Notice that this Chapter is included on the CD that came with the book. It is also posted at the onCourse site.

Reading Questions

  1. How does multiple regression differ from the linear regression models we discussed in Chapters 7 & 8?
  2. What is the advantage of multiple regression over the models from Chapters 7 & 8?

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For Tuesday April 26

Chapter 22. Comparing Counts

To read: All

Reading Questions

    What does the chi-square statistic measure? Explain the idea in your own words in a couple of sentences.

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For Thursday April 28

Chapter 22. Comparing Counts

Re-read the chapter, but no Reading Questions for today.

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