University of Minnesota--Syllabus for STAT 1001, Fall 2011
This is an introductory course in statistics whose purpose is to promote understanding of statistical reasoning and using numerical information to make judgments and decisions. You will learn to understand graphical and numerical presentations of data, to judge the reliability of results from studies, surveys and experiments, and to realize that in an uncertain world randomness and variation are to be expected. A little elementary probability is included. The methods and concepts studied will be presented in the context of the real-world problems in the social, physical and biological sciences and other real-world questions that the methods can help students understand.
The course consists of three lecture periods per week plus a recitation section to discuss homework assignments and add supplementary material.
The course prerequisite is
two years of high school mathematics. Knowledge of computers for collecting information from the internet is also assumed.
The instructor is Sanford Weisberg,
email sandy@stat.umn.edu, office hours:
M:4:00-4:30; Th:1-2,
in 312 Ford Hall, 625-8355. The TAs are
Megan Heyman,
email heyma029@umn.edu, office hour Tu:1PM in 350 Ford,
and
Lindsey Dietz, office hour Tu:9AM
email deit0146@umn.edu.
The instructors work as a team, so you can see any of us.
Lectures are MWF 9:05-9:55 in room
155 Nicholson Hall.
Sections: Section 2, Tu 8:00-8:50 in 45 Rapson Hall, Section 3, Tu 9:05-9:15 in 115 Ford Hall, and Section 4, Tu 10:10-11:00 in 115 Ford Hall. You should generally attend the section in which you are enrolled because space is limited.
Utts, Jessica M. (2005). Seeing Through Statistics, Third Edition, Thomson Brooks-Cole. You can buy the book on-line at a discount, or get it as an ebook, at http://tinyurl.com/8td2l7. Be sure you are getting the third edition, not an earlier edition.
Material presented in class will parallel, but not duplicate, the material in the textbook. You will be responsible for both the assigned sections in the textbook and the material presented in class.
- Homework
- Reading and problem assignments
posted on the class Moodle website and distributed via email. Some, but not all, of
the material in the assignments will be covered in class. You will
be responsible for all the material in the assigned sections of the book and all the material presented in class. Homework sets will be due on Monday of the week that has a quiz, so there will be six homework assignments. The homework you turn in on Monday will be returned and discussed in Section on Tuesday.
- Quizzes
- Quizzes will be given the Wednesday following the due date of homework.
Each quiz will cover material similar to the homework, and will consist of a mixture of multiple choice, numeric answers and short answers. You may prepare and use a one-page (front and back) summary of the material for the quiz. Questions will generally parallel the homework but will also include topics covered in class that were not on the homework. Here are the quiz dates. The chapter coverage is subject to change.
| September 21 |
Chapters 1-4 |
| October 5 |
Chapters 5-8 |
| October 19 |
Chapters 9-11 |
| November 2 |
Chapters 12-14 |
| November 16 |
Chapters 15-18 |
| December 7 |
Chapters 19-22 |
Missed quizzes will get a
grade
of zero; makeups will not be permitted, but your lowest quiz score will be dropped.
- Exams
- There is no midterm exam. Classes end on Wednesday, December 14. The final exam will be given 1:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m. Thursday, December 22, which is the LAST DAY of exam period. Please adjust your schedules accordingly so you will be able to take this exam at the appointed time. You should have no expectation that you will permitted to take the final exam early. An early or late exam will be given only in extraordinary circumstances, and must be negotiated in advance with the instructor.
The exam will be comprehensive. You will be permitted to have a few summary sheets of notes.
Each homework assignment is worth 10 points for a total of 60 points.
Each quiz is worth 30 points, but your lowest score is dropped, for a total of 150 points.
The final exam is worth 90 points, for a total of 300 points in the class.
In all likelihood, 255 points (85%) will be required for an A, 220 points (73.3%) for a B, 180 points (60%) for a C, and 150 points (50%) for a D.
Except in the case of prolonged illness, there will be no opportunity to make up missed work, or earn additional credit toward your grade in some other way.
A grade of Incomplete will be given only in extraordinary circumstances, such as serious illness or other issue, and must meet departmental and College and University policies. You must contact the instructor as soon as you decide an incomplete may be appropriate for you.
Sections on Tuesdays are an integral part of the course. They provide you
for an opportunity to learn in a group with topics chosen by the needs of
you and your fellow students. If you do not plan to attend sections and lectures regularly, you should not enroll in this course.
There will be no class on Friday, November 4.
You may not use any electronic gadgets including computers and cell phones during class. You may use calculators during exams, although it is not necessary to do so. You may NOT use calculators that can communicate with others (like a calculator app on an iPhone). In class, computers make you stupid.
The class website is on Moodle. Here is how to get started.
- Point your (Firefox) browser to https://moodle.umn.edu
- In the upper left column under "Get started", click the "Login" link
and log in using your UofM Internet (x500) ID and password.
- On the resulting page, you'll see in the middle of the page and on the lower right column a box that says "My courses". Find your course
number, which is stat 1001, and the course name, which is Introduction to
the Ideas of Statistics, and click on it.
- You will next be asked to enter the course enrollment key, which I will give out in class. This will take you to the main Moodle page for the course, which you should then bookmark.
We will generally follow the table of contents of the textbook, at the rate of two chapters per week or with more difficult material, one chapter per week.
S Weisberg
2011-11-30