Course: Mathematics 342 A, Statistics, Spring 2002, Central College.
Professor: Tom Linton , 312 B Central Hall, (641) 628-5264, email: lintont@central.edu.
Class Meets: MWF 9:00 to 9:50 AM in Central Hall 309.
Office Hours: 1 PM Mon and Thur, 9 AM Tues, 10:00 AM Fri, or by appointment.
Text: Probability and Statistical Inference 6th Edition, by Hogg and Tanis.
Technology: A graphing calculator similar to the TI-83 is highly recommended. If you have one, you should bring it to class daily. We may utilize Mathematica, Excel, and perhaps other applications as well. No prior knowledge of these programs is assumed. The class web page is located at the URL http://www.central.edu/homepages/lintont/classes/spring02/statframeset.html and information relevant to this course may come via email. You should check your email and the class web page on occasion.
Final Exam: Wednesday May 8, 8 AM, 309 Central Hall.

Class Overview

This is the second half of a two semester study of probability and statistics. Statistics is the science of interpreting, understanding, and deducing information from data collections. We will emphasize the meaning of statistical results, and the mathematics used to perform statistical calculations. Our goal will be to cover much of chapters 5 to 9 in the text, in the order they appear in the book. In particular, the notions of distributions of functions of one or more random variables, sampling distribution theory, estimation, significance tests, and the theory of statistical inference will be addressed.

Goals and Objectives

Upon completing this class, students will If any student has a physical, learning or psychiatric disability that restricts the development or expression of your gifts, please feel free to let me know so that we can, when possible, make accommodations that will enhance your classroom experience.

Grades

Grades, based on the letter, or A, A-, B+, B, B-, . . . system, will be based on a curve of the total points in the class. The curve used will be the traditional 100-93 A, 92-90 A-, 89-88 B+, etc. (or an easier curve). The breakdown of the points in the class is given below. There is no extra credit for this class. You are encouraged to work together on group assignments (including homework), but copying answers of others (including those in the back of the text) will result in no credit.

Exams: There will be two or three midterm exams worth 100 points each. Tentatively, these exams will occur after we complete chapters 5, 7, and 8, or approximately on the dates February 6 (exam 1), March 6 (exam 2) and April 17 (exam 3). We will also have a 150 point cumulative final exam on Wednesday May 8 at 8 AM.

Quizzes and Homework: I will collect homework assignments regularly and there will be semi-regular (every two weeks or so) quizzes as well. Normally, quizzes will be announced. There will be approximately 250 points total (200 on HW and 50 on quizzes) based on your homework and quiz grades. You should keep your homework in a separate notebook so that it can be collected at any time. Recording "just the answer" will receive little or no credit. You should show and/or explain your work on all assignments for this class. You are encouraged to work together on homework assignments, but this does NOT mean copying the work of others nor answers from a solution set.

Activities: We will likely complete a few activities (mostly in groups), some in-class, others may be out of class. These activities will involve the current topics of the course and normally involve an application of statistics. We will have approximately 150 points (total) worth of activities.

Class Participation and Attendance: There will be 50 points based on your class participation (asking questions, taking part in discussions, contributing to your group in activities, etc.) and attendance. I will determine your score for these 50 points. You are responsible for all of the material covered in class each day, even if you are not present.

Late assignments and academic dishonesty: Late homework, activities, etc. will be penalized by 10% each lecture they are late. I am fairly flexible about giving exams at alternate times, BUT you should definitely warn me before the exam is missed, and plan on taking it early rather than late. Quizzes missed due to absences can NOT be made up. Plagiarism, or copying answers from other people or books without citing the source is a serious offense and will result in no credit for the work.  It is OK to discuss your answers with other groups on group assignments, but  the work you turn in must be your own.

Class Materials

Generating data from ANY distribution with a simple calculator. Class data resulting from this activity.

Order statistics Mathematica notebook: Simulating values from the distribution of some order statistic, and calculating probabilities using both the density function approach and the distribution function approach.

Schedule

Relevant information will be added to this schedule as we progress through the semester. An up to date version is available on line at http://www.central.edu/homepages/lintont/classes/spring02/statframeset.html#schedule.
 
Week
Dates
Sections
Assignment
1
1-14 to 18
4.4 and 4.5
4.4 #1,4,5,6,8,10,13,14,16,21 Not Due
4.5 #1,2,4,8,14
Activity on simulating data class data
2 1-21 to 25 5.1, 5.2 5.1#1,3,4,8,9
3 1-28 to 2-1 5.2, 5.6 5.2#2,3,5,7,10,12
4 2-4 to 8 6.1 5.6#2,3,5,6,7
Mathematica order statistics file
5 2-11 to 15 6.2 6.1#1,2,4,10
6.2#1,5,7,11,12,15,17
6 2-18 to 22 6.3 exam 1
6.3#3,4,5,6,9,10,12
7 2-25 to 3-1 6.4, 6.5 6.4#2,3,5,8
6.5#1,4,7,8,10,12,14
8 3-4 to 8 6.6,6.7 6.6#1,2,3
6.7#1,3,4,5
9 3-11 to 15   Spring Break!
10 3-18 to 22 6.8 6.8#1,3,4,6
exam 2
11 3-25 to 27 7.1 7.1#1,3,5,7,9,10,15,16
12 4-3 to 5 7.2 7.2#2,4,7,9,12,14,17
13 4-8 to 12 7.3 7.3#1,2,3,6,9,11
14 4-15 to 19 7.5,7.6,8.1 7.5#1,2,4,6,11,12,14,15
7.6#2,3,5,7,10,16,17
8.1#1,2,4,8,10,16,18
15 4-22 to 26 8.2 exam 3
16      
17
May 8
Wed 8 AM
Cumulative Final Exam