 Overview
The emphasis in this course is to give you experience with, and
understanding of, data analysis, data production, and statistical
inference. One of the major goals is to help you become a
knowledgeable and skeptical consumer of statistics. To quote Rich
Single, a friend of mine who is a statistician,
We are bombarded every day with numerous statistics. Some are from
well designed studies and some are from poorly defined studies; some
are clear and understandable, some are unintentionally misleading, and
some are purposefully misleading. It is becoming more and more
important to be able to discern among these.
In this same vein, one of my favorite statistical quotes comes from
David Moore, the author of our text:
Mathematical theorems are true; statistical methods are sometimes
effective when used with skill.
Course Goals and Expectations
Two of the goals of this course are that you learn to read technical
material and that you learn to communicate this material with other students.
A significant part of your evaluation in this course will be based on
Reading Assignments and a Group Project and Presentation.
Statistics is best learned by doing rather than by observing.
Therefore, the class will be structured with some lectures to emphasize particular
topics, but much of the time will be spent on in-class work. The
class meetings are not intended to be a complete encapsulation of the
course material -There will be material in the text for which you are
responsible that we will not cover in class.
You will have a reading assignment for nearly every class meeting, and
it is extremely important that you complete the reading before the
next class meeting! Although you may not completely understand the
entire section, the class meetings will be much more beneficial to you if you
are familiar with the basic topics for the day.
You should expect to put in at least 2 hours outside of class for
each hour in class. In other words, expect to spend at least 6 hours
per week on Statistics outside of class. There will be some weeks
where you spend more time (e.g. working on the project or preparing for exams),
and there may be some weeks where you do not spend the full 6 hours.
Evaluation
Your final grade will be determined by
| Reading Assignments | 5% |
| Homework | 10% |
| Group Project | 25% |
| Three In-Class Exams | 40% |
| Final Exam | 20% |
Reading Assignments
I will put a copy of each reading assignment on the Math 141 homepage.
Each assignment will indicate which parts of the section are especially
important and which can be skipped. Each assignment will also
indicate two or three of the Apply Your Knowledge
questions from the text that you should be able to answer after you have
read the section.
See the Guidelines for Submitting Reading Assignments and Suggestions for Reading a Math Bookfor more information on submitting the assignments.
Group Project
You will have a semester-long project that will tie together
many of
the topics that we will discuss during the course. Your project will
consist of defining a topic to study, collecting data, analyzing
the data, writing a report that explains your study, and presenting your
results to the entire class. This is a group project where you will
work in groups of three or four.
I will give you a handout that explains my expectations for the
projects in more detail.
Exams
The dates for the exams are given on the syllabus. I will give you a set
of sample problems before each exam, and we will have a question and
answer session before each exam to discuss the sample problems.
For each exam, you will be allowed to bring an 8.5x11 piece
of paper, handwritten on one side, which you will turn in with the exam.
Homework
You will have a homework assignment due nearly every Thursday, which will
be posted on the course webpage. Some weeks, not all of the
assignment will be collected, but
it will still behoove you to complete all of the problems in an
assignment. An advanced student will grade three
or four problems from each assignment, with each
problem
graded fairly leniently and assigned a score of 0, 1, or 2. The most
important aspect of the homework is that you make an effort on every problem.
The homework assignments will alternate between Individual
assignments and Group assignments. For the Group assignments,
each student should attempt all of the homework problems,
and the group should meet to complete the assignment.
Each group will turn in one paper with one student
designated as the
primary author who writes-up the solutions for that assignment.
The role of primary
author must rotate among the members of the group.
You may discuss Individual assignments with other
students, but under no circumstances should you turn in
work that is identical to another student's.
The paper you turn in must represent your own efforts.
Here are a few guidelines for the presentation of your homework.
If you do not follow these, I reserve the right to return your homework ungraded!
- Your writing must be clear and legible.
- Your homework should be well-written,
using complete sentences to justify your results where necessary.
A list of answers without explanation is not acceptable.
- Here is a good rule of thumb to follow when writing up your
homework:
Write your solutions so that you could hand them to a student in a
different section of Statistics and she could understand your
explanation.
- If you write in pen, there should be no scratch-outs.
- Do not turn in paper torn from a spiral notebook with ragged
edges.
- Clearly label each problem.
In order to give you some time to look over your assignment after you
have asked questions, I will leave 10 minutes of class on
Wednesday to answer homework questions. However,
Expect to spend 4-6 hours for each homework assignment,
so be sure to start early!
The homework is due in my office by 4:00 on Thursday.
You will be allowed to drop one homework assignment at the end of the semester.
Therefore,
Late homework is not accepted!! No exceptions!!
I do not intend to give quizzes during the semester, but
if I feel that the class is not keeping up with the course work,
I reserve the right to give quizzes that will be counted into the
homework grade. The quizzes would be announced at least one class
meeting in advance.
Grading of Group Assignments
Each group assignment will receive a single grade, and the group will
determine how the points are allocated to each member.
For example, if a group of
three receives an 85 on the project, then the group will have
3 x 85=255 points to distribute among them.
I will be available to mediate this process, if necessary.
Class Attendance
Although class attendance is not a specified percentage of your grade,
I will keep a class roll to help me determine borderline grades at the
end of the semester. If you do miss class, you are responsible
for the material that was covered.
Getting Help
Please come see me during my office hours! If you have a conflict
and cannot make my office hours, please call or email me and we can set up
an appointment for another time.
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