General Information for Math 115

Math 115.02, Spring, 2005

Instructor: Tom Moore
Phone: 4206 (office)
e-mail: mooret
course web site : http://www.math.grin.edu/~mooret/courses/math115/

Introduction:

As our textbook defines it: "Statistics is the science of data." It's our mission to learn the fundamentals of this science, at a practical level. Notice that our textbook title uses the phrase, "practice of statistics." Specifically, I have these student goals in mind for the course:

Students will appreciate the usefulness of obtaining and analyzing data for making decisions and advancing knowledge. (Decisions through data)
Students will understand the "big picture" description of what statistics is and be able to identify the components of the big picture in specific instances of statistical work. (The Big Picture)
Students will understand the importance of data collection and be able to critique the quality of studies based upon issues of data collection. (Data quality)
Students will appreciate the prevalance of statistics in the advancement of knowledge and will be able to intelligently discuss media reports about studies that involve statistical issues. (Statistics in the media)
Students will be able to apply basic data anlytical techniques to uncover patterns and truths within data sets, and will understand the primary importance of graphing the data. (Data analysis)
Students will be able to apply the basic techniques of statistical inference to data, to interpret the results of a statistical analysis using the concepts of confidence intervals or tests of significance, and to assess when particular inferential procedures are appropriate. (Statistical inference)
Students will be able to communicate the results of statistical analyses or quantitative findings in writing and speaking. (Communication)

Texts and computing:

We will use David Moore's Basic Practice of Statistics (third edition) as the course text.

We will use the statistical package Minitab for any serious data analysis, but you will need a scientific calculator for basic homework and exam calculations. If you need to purchase a calculator you may want to buy one that does 2-variable statistics. Some "statistics calculators" don't do this, so you want to look for one that does correlation (look for an r key) and regression.

My expectations:

Moore's text is extremely readable and I will expect you to learn from the book.

I expect things to be handed in on time. I view daily homework as a service we provide you, the student, to help you learn and practice new material. You get to try out your new knowledge and have someone read and comment on your attempts. This provides instrinsic motivation for doing the assignments. Nevertheless, my experience tells me that if I don't also provide some extrinsic incentive for daily assignments many students will not do them---or at least not in the timely and serious way that leads to their best effect. Thus I assign a small portion of the final course grade to homework and establish these rules about assigned work:

Assignments are due at the beginning of the class they are assigned for (unless otherwise noted).
If you must miss class for an activity (athletics, model U.N., etc) you should clear that absence in advance and still turn the assignment in on time.
If you have a documentable, unexpected absence, I will negotiate with you an appropriate accomodation.

I assume you will come to class. If you have to miss a class, I appreciate your discussing it with me in advance. The health center is good about alerting me to illnesses. I think it is important to be in class, both for you and for the success of the class.

You should expect of me:

That I come to class prepared, that I make the course interesting and relevant (and keep the course goals firmly in front of us), and that I be available and cheerful about helping you outside of class, as well as in.

Accomodations:

If you have specific physical, psychiatric, or learning disabilities and require accommodations, please let me know early in the semester so that your learning needs may be appropriately met. You will need to provide documentation of your disability to the Associate Dean and Director of Academic Advising, Joyce Stern, located in the lower level of the Forum (x3702).

Assignments and grades:

To obtain the daily homework assignments click on the appropriate assignment sheet at the course web site. Beside the homework assignments from the text we will do:
Projects: Open-ended assignments requiring data analysis and perhaps the collection of your own data,
Exams: We will have hourly exams, in class on Thursday, February 24, and Thursday, April 14,
Labs: Data analysis exercises that are longer than daily homework, but less involved than a project, and
Quizzes: A few short in-class quizzes, that I will announce in advance,

We will have a comprehensive final exam on Wednesday, May 18, at 2 p.m.

Grades: Tentative guidelines for final course grades will be this:

Hourly exams---200 points
Projects---150-200 points
Labs or quizzes---50-100 points
Daily Homework---50 points
Class participation---20 points
Final Exam---100 points

Daily Assignments

Assignments are due at the beginning of class. For daily homework, I encourage and expect you to work with other students for homework, but you must write up your own papers to hand in. For certain assignments, I explicitly ask you to hand in joint work. Please use standard paper and staple multiple sheets (please don't clip or dog-ear.) Write neatly and coherently. Graphs and plots should be incorporated into the written solutions, near the prose, and should be given titles or captions and clear axis labels.

Note: I assign only a fraction of the exercises in the text. You should use others for extra practice, as you deem necessary. I will be posting all solutions in a course notebook outside my office. Let me know if I can be of help in selecting additional exercises.

Monday, January 24

Introduction to statistics

Tuesday, January 25

Read pages xx-xxv ("Statistical thinking) and Chapter 1.
Hand in: Exercises 1.2, 1.7, 1.16, 1.23, 1.24, and 1.30.

Thursday, January 27

Read Chapter 2.
We will do a lab today.

Friday, January 28

Hand in the answers to yesterday's lab.
Hand in: 1.29, 1.34, 2.8, 2.12, 2.35, and 2.36.

NOTE: When directions ask you to use your calculator, you may do that or you may, instead, use some other software such as the One Variable Statistical Calculator (applet with the text), Minitab, etc. Keep in mind that the applets are available at the textbook web site (given at our course web page) or on the CD that came with the text.

Monday, January 31

Read Chapter 3.
Hand in exercise 2.38.

Tuesday, February 1

Read Lab before coming to class.

Thursday, February 3

Professor Gary Oehlert speaks at 4:30 (4:15 for refreshments).
Hand in Lab 2 report.

Friday, February 4

Read Chapter 4.
Hand in: 1.36, 2.7, 2.9 (use software for mean and SD), 2.27, 3.4, 3.7, 3.8, 3.20, 3.24, 3.27,

Monday, February 7

Quiz: We will have a quiz today. Bring your calculator and your gatefold insert.
Hand in: 4.1, 4.4, 4.5, 4.7, 4.8ab.