Course Information
Course: Mathematics 290 A, Topics: Advanced
Statistics, Spring 2008, Central
College . This class carries the "m" (math) core designation.
Professor: Tom
Linton office: 129 VSC, phone: (641) 628-5264 email: lintont@central.edu
Office Hours: Mon 11-11:50 AM,
Tues 8-8:50 AM, Wed 1-1:50 PM, Fri 9-9:50 AM, or by appointment.
Class Meets: MTWF 2-2:50 PM in
VSC 141.
Text: Investigating
Statistical Concepts, Applications, and Methods,
by Chance and Rossman. It is very important that you bring the book to
every class meeting, and you are encouraged to write directly in your
book.
Technology: We will be using the Minitab (version
15) software package for data analysis and exploration, as
well as Excel. You will be given instructions for
how to use Minitab, Excel, and java applets as needed for this course.
You will need access to Minitab, Excel and the internet outside of
class. You should also have a scientific calculator (ideally the TI-83
or 84) and bring it to class each day. The class web
page is located at the URL http://pages.central.edu/emp/lintont/classes/spring08/advstatsframeset.htm.
This course has a site on Central's Blackboard server (http://my.central.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp),
and information relevant to this course may come via
email. You should regularly check your Central email and the class web
pages for information related to this class.
Cumulative Final Exam: Thursday, May 8, 1
PM in VSC 141 (our usual classroom).
Class Overview
Statistics is the science of reasoning from data. Its
purpose is to aid people in making decisions based on the
analysis
of numerical information. Data and numerical arguments abound not only
in science and social science disciplines but in almost every field of
academic inquiry. Moreover, most people encounter statistical reasoning
in everyday life. It is therefore exceedingly appropriate and important
for all liberally educated citizens to undertake study of fundamental
principles
and methods of statistics. Statistics is both an exciting intellectual
discipline and a powerful scientific tool. Statistics
is a mathematical science, in the sense that it makes use of
mathematics extensively, but it is not a branch of mathematics. This course will introduce you to fundamental
concepts and methods of statistics. Some
of the key ideas to be studied include data collection strategies and
their scopes of conclusion, the role of randomness in collecting data
and drawing conclusions, graphical and numerical summaries of data,
assessing statistical significance, and estimating with confidence.
As opposed
to passively taking notes while I lecture, you will spend a significant
portion
of class time actively engaged with the material. You will work through
activities carefully designed to lead you to discover fundamental
statistical
ideas for yourself. You will be encouraged to work collaboratively with
a partner on most of these activities, and some will require the use of
the computer. What you need to bring to the course are an
open mind for tackling quantitative questions in a conceptual manner
and
a willingness to participate actively in class.
Goals for the Course
Upon completing Advanced Statistics, you will:
- understand the difference between observational
studies and controlled experiments and the scope of conclusions that
each permits;
- conduct and interpret descriptive analyses of
data, including graphical and numerical summaries, for categorical and
quantitative data;
- understand fundamental concepts of statistical
inference, such as confidence and significance, including limitations
of these procedures;
- conduct and interpret tests of significance,
including Fisher's exact test, binomial tests, z-tests for a proportion
and difference in proportions, and t-tests for a mean and difference in
means;
- conduct and interpret confidence intervals.
Americans with Disabilities Act
Central
College abides by interpretations of the Americans with
Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 that
stipulates no student shall be denied the benefits of an education
"solely
by reason of a handicap."
Disabilities covered by law include, but are not limited to,
learning
disabilities, hearing, sight, or mobility impairments, and other health
related
impairments. If you have a documented
disability that may have some impact on your work in this class for
which you
may require accommodations, please see me and Nancy Kroese,
Director of
Student Support Services and Disabilities Services Coordinator, (x
5247) during
the first two weeks of the semester so that such accommodations may be
arranged.
Grades
Exams
There will be two (or three) 100 point midterm exams given in the evenings
(regular class meeting time will be cancelled to compensate for these
three additional dates). These exams will occur
approximately on the dates February 14 (exam 1) and April 3 (exam 2).
We
will also have a 150 point cumulative final exam at 1 PM on Thursday,
May 8, 2008.
Homework, Investigations, Practice Problems, Projects, and
Activities
Most chapters of the text that we cover will include a variety of
homework like assignments. Some will be done in groups, some
individually, some will be done in class, others will be done outside
of class. You are encouraged to work on many of these problems with
each other, but on certain assignments (particularly the end of chapter
homework problems) you will be required to write up
your solutions individually in your own words. Assignments
are due at the beginning of class on the indicated day. There will be
approximately 300 points for these assignments.
Class Participation and Attendance
There will be 100 points of your final grade 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 100 points. You are responsible for all of the material
covered in
class each day, even if you are not present.
Course Grades
Grades, based on the letter, or A, A-, B+, B, B-, . . . system, will be
based on a weighted curve of the 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 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. We expect you to uphold Central's Academic Honesty
Policy given below.
Each of Exams 1, 2
|
2 x 100
|
| Final Exam |
150
|
Homework and Activities
|
300
|
| Class Participation |
100
|
| Total Points |
750
|
Late assignments and academic
dishonesty
Mock
Trial participants, choir tour participants, athletes, and others
who must miss a class for participating in a college sanctioned event
are
expected to notify me in advance and complete work including tests in
advance
of the absence. It is the student's responsibility
to communicate with me well in advance regarding their absences and
determine a schedule
for make up work. Class attendance is strongly encouraged.
Due to the interactive
nature of the classroom environment, most students find that attending
class regularly is essential to learning the material. Naturally, you
are
responsible for material covered and announcements made during classes
that you miss.
I will drop your lowest homework
or activity assignment. In addition, each student will receive four
"days" of
allowed (penalty free) late assignments. An assignment is late "one
day" if it is
turned in after I collect it, up to the following lecture period, at
which point the 2nd late day begins, and runs up to the next class
period, etc. Other than the dropped scores and each student's four
days of penalty free lateness, there is no credit for late work. I am
fairly
flexible
about giving exams at alternate times, and moving deadlines for excused
absences, BUT you should definitely warn
me
before
the assignment is missed, and plan on turning things in early
rather than
late.
Plagiarism
and cheating of any form are serious offenses and may result
in an F for the assignment, the course, or expulsion from the college. The details of Central's Academic
Integrity
policy are found in the Student Handbook, on the web. A copy will
be
sent to
you via e-mail during the first week of the semester. It is your responsibility
to read and understand the contents of that policy before you submit
work to be
graded. Questions regarding the policies and enforcement of the
policies may be
addressed to me during class or during office hours.
Study Hints:
It is important that you spend this time wisely and that you ask
for help early when you are struggling. I and
previous students in the class offer the following very simple but
often ignored pieces of advice for doing well in the course.
- Come to class. Student evaluations reinforce my
conviction that there is no substitute for attending class, seeing and
hearing the material and examples presented, and having the chance to
ask questions and to practice problems. Finally, you can often pick up
hints and advice about studying and about homework problems from
attending class.
- Participate in class.
Coming to class only
contributes to your learning if you are willing to participate
actively. During many class periods you will be asked to work on
activities designed to help you learn the material and to explore the
concepts and methods of probability and statistics. Please
engage yourself fully with these activities.
- Work together. Many of the in-class activities will ask
you to work collaboratively with your peers. Please
do so freely, as I believe that you will be able to help each other
with your learning. I also encourage you to work
and study together outside of class. Just remember
that unless specified otherwise, solutions to homework problems are to
be written up individually.
- Ask questions. Please do not hesitate to ask questions
when you don’t understand something presented in class or on a homework
problem. Don’t necessarily wait until after class or during office
hours; you can ask questions during class time as well. Feel free to
give me other sorts of feedback as well: whether the pace is too fast
or slow, etc.
- Start the assignments
early. You will usually be given at least one
week to complete each assignment. Please avoid the temptation to put
the assignments off until the last day; you should start early enough
to be able to ask questions when they arise. It is also helpful to have
the homework problems in mind when we cover the relevant material in
class. Keep in mind that the material in this
course builds cumulatively over the course of the semester.
- Take the course seriously.
This
course should not be approached casually. One aspect of the course is
that you will have to do a fair bit of writing, explaining and
presenting your results. It is important to
practice the terminology and concepts frequently. I will be fairly
demanding of your work under the belief this will improve your overall
understanding and performance.
- Have fun with the material. This may seem to
contradict the previous point, but I do think that statistics is a very
fun, entertaining subject. We will be analyzing genuine data from a
variety of real-world applications and diverse disciplines. Allow
yourself to enjoy these aspects of the course, and feel free to suggest
other applications that appeal to you.
- Think! Do not treat the course as an exercise in
mere “plug-and-chug” number-crunching, and do not try to apply formulas
by rote to solve problems. (That’s not what statistics is about!) Think
about what you are doing, recognizing that there are often several ways
to solve a problem and that one clever thought might eliminate the need
for pages of painful calculations. Use your intuitive sense to check
your results.
Above all, you are
responsible for your own learning. As your
instructor, my role is providing you with contexts and opportunities to
facilitate the learning process. Please call on me
to help you with this learning in whatever ways I can.
Class Materials
TI-83 Materials
The TI-83 or 84 calculator (or any variation of these two
calculators) performs many useful statistical calculations with
the press of a button. No prior knowledge of the TI-83 (84) is assumed.
The links below
point to files designed to help explain some
features of this pocket computer. The first two links
are introductory in nature and designed to help familiarize new users
with some basic features of the TI-83. The remaining links will only
make sense as we progress through the semester.
Introduction
: A general introduction to the TI-83
calculator.
Graphing
: Several basic operations related to
graphing functions are covered in this document.
Normal
Calculations : Probabilities associated with
normal distributions are covered.
Linear
Regression : Correlation, scatterplots and
least squares linear regression are looked at briefly on the TI-83.
Confidence intervals and significance or hypothesis
tests with the TI-83.
Java Applets
Answers
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://pages.central.edu/emp/lintont/classes/spring08/advstats/index.htm#schedule
and on Blackboard.
|
Week
|
Dates
|
Topics
|
HW Assignment & Due Date
|
|
1
|
Jan 14-18
|
Traffic Deaths in Connecticut
1.1 Summarizing Categorical Data
1.2 Analyzing Categorical Data
|
Prologue questions a to i, due W 1-16
PP 1.1.1 and 1.1.2 on p 9, due W 1-16
PP 1.2.1 due F 1-18
PP 1.2.2 due M 1-21
|
2
|
Jan
21-25
|
1.3
Confounding
1.4
Designing Experiments
1.5 Assessing Statistical Significance
|
PP
1.3.2 and 1.3.3 due T 1-22
PP 1.4.1, 1.4.3, and 1.4.4.due F 1-25
PP 1.5.2 due M 1-28
HW #1 Ch 1 Exercises # 2,3,4,7
due F 1-25
|
3
|
Jan
28-Feb 1
|
1.6
Probability and Counting Methods
1.7 Fisher's Exact Test
|
PP
1.6.3 and 1.6.4 due W 1-30
HW 2 Ch 1 Exercises #
17,20,21,29 d F 2-1
|
4
|
Feb
4-8
|
2.1
Summarizing Quantitative Data
Shape, Center, Spread
|
Snow day Mon &
Wed
HW 3 Ch 1 Exercises
#35 a,b,c,d, 36 a,b,c,d, 42, 43 due Fri 2-8.
Hand in Investigation 2.1.4
Mon 2-11
|
5
|
Feb
11-15
|
Box
Plots, Histograms, Dot plots
|
2-15,
Exam 1, through Inv. 2.1.4
|
6
|
Feb
18-22
|
Z
scores, outliers, resistence
Minimizing Error
|
Snow
day Mon
|
7
|
Feb
25-29
|
2.2
Statistical Significance
|
HW 4 Ch 2 Ex #2,3,10,14,24a,b,c, 29 due Mon
3-3
|
|
17
|
Th May 8
|
1:00 PM
|
Cumulative 150 Point Final Exam
|