Stat 212a - Statistics for the Sciences
MWF
Professor:
Julie Legler
Office: OMH 304 Phone: 3573
Email: legler@stolaf.edu (I check email very frequently)
Office Hours: See my web site
Course Webpages
:
http://statweb.calpoly.edu/chance/stat212/
http://www.rossmanchance.com/iscat/files.html
Course Alias: stats-212a@stolaf.edu
Prerequisite: Math 119 or 120 or 122 and an introductory science course.
Texts/Materials:
Required:
Statistical Concepts, Applications, and Theory
A. Rossman and B. Chance (2004), Duxbury
These materials will be supplied to you by your instructor.
You should also have a PC formatted floppy disk, a scientific calculator, an email address, and a large three-ring binder. You will need access to Minitab and the internet outside of class. Additional lecture handouts will be supplied in class, you are responsible for receiving and keeping these materials. Handouts from previous lectures will be available on the course web page.
Statistical Package/Calculators: We will be using the Minitab software package for data analysis and exploration, as well as Excel. You will be given instructions for how to use Minitab and Excel as needed for this course. You will need access to Minitab and Excel outside of class. You are also encouraged to use a scientific calculator.
Course Objectives: To gain an understanding of statistical principles and their uses, especially in the sciences. This course addresses issues in data collection, including sampling and experimental designs, graphical and numerical techniques for exploring and modeling data, and statistical inference. You will learn how to make inferences from samples to populations, between treatment groups in an experiment, and about relationships between variables.
Grading:
Practice/In class activities/participation 20%
Two midterm exams/mini-projects 40%
Final exam 25%
Homework/Labs 15%
Exams: There will be two in class midterm exams and one comprehensive final. Graded exams will be returned in class or can be picked up from me.
Coursework: There will be practice problems to be completed between class periods. These are usually more informal checks on your understanding of that section. You are encouraged to submit any questions you have on these items to the course alias/discussion board. We will review these in class the next day and I will occasionally collect your work to supply feedback.
There will be
homework problems that will be assigned roughly once per week. You will
generally have a week to complete the assignments.
You are encouraged to work with other people in the class but the work you
turn in must be your own. Homework assignments are
due by
There will also be some lab assignments that are more involved and typically require use of the computer. You are encouraged to work together in pairs on these assignments, turning in one word-processed report with both of your names. Evaluation of the labs will include quality of presentation (style, readability, grammar, spelling ), discussion, and output. Details for individual labs will be provided. No late lab assignments will be accepted.
There will be 2-3
data collection projects. You
will be asked to collect data and then use the techniques discussed in class
to analyze the data. You will be asked to work in groups
of 3-5 people. The first report will be due at the
beginning of the first exam. Reports will be graded
on quality of the written report, quality of data collection methods, correctness
of statistical methods, and appropriateness of interpretation and conclusions.
Each person’s grade will be 75% group grade and 25% individual grade.
Individual grades will be determined by the instructor and team
member evaluations.
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.
1. 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. I do present some material that is not covered in the text and cover some material in different ways than the text, as well. Finally, one can often pick up hints and advice about studying and about homework problems from attending class.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Ask questions.
Please do not hesitate to ask me 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.
5.
Review your notes.
My intention is to enable you to put together a very extensive and useful
set of class notes. I urge you to keep thorough notes and to review them
often, particularly before starting homework assignments and while studying
for exams.
6. Check the course
webpage and discussion board regularly.
Many students often have similar questions and additional insights
that you can learn from. This is a good place to check
for late breaking news and late night inspirations.
7. Start the assignments early.
You 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 quarter.
8.
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.
9. 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.
10. 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.