Colorado State University, Pueblo, Fall 2008
Math 156 — Introduction to Statistics
Section 6, MWF 2-2:50 ["Traditional Statistics"]
Homework Assignments & Course Schedule

In the following all sections and page numbers refer to the required course textbook, The Basic Practice of Statistics, Fourth Edition, by David S. Moore.

For each week, please read the sections described in the plan for that week, before the corresponding day.

This schedule is subject to change, but should be accurate at any moment for at least a couple of weeks in the future.

Here is a link back to the course syllabus/policy page.

Week of August 25:

• Send me e-mail: Please send me (at jonathan.poritz@gmail.com ) a message telling me:
  1. Your name.
  2. Your e-mail address. (Please give me one that you actually check fairly frequently, since I may use it to contact you during the term.)
  3. Your phone number. (Skip this is you wish; the math department has asked me to collect this information, in case we need to contact you quickly, but it cannot be required of you, by privacy laws.)
  4. Your year/program/major at CSUP.
  5. What you intend to do after CSUP, in so far as you have an idea.
  6. Past math classes you've had.
  7. The reason you are taking this course.
  8. Anything else you think I should know (disabilities, employment or other things that take a lot of time, etc.)
  17. [Optional:] The best book you have read recently.
  18. [Optional:] When you are studying, do you like to listen to music? If so, what kind of music?
  19. [Optional:] Fill in the blanks: "If Mathematics were an animal, it would be a ........ because ........"
  Please consider this HW0 and do it some time Monday. But as some direct incentive: I will only enter your name into my gradebook and give you your "late HW passes" when I get this e-mail, so you really need to do this assignment ASAP. Please take a moment to be complete (indeed, be as expansive as you can) — the more information I have about you, the better I can adapt the course to your needs and interests.
• Content this week:
  • Introduction
  • Pie&bar charts, histograms, stem-and-leaf plots (also called "stem plots")
  • Measures of the middle of a distribution (mean, median, mode)
  • Measures of the spread of a distribution (variance, standard deviation, quartiles)
  • Box-and-whisker plots
• Read:
  • TO THE STUDENTS: Statistical Thinking, pp. xxiii-xxix.
  • Exploring Data, p. 0.
  • Chapter 1
  • Chapter 2
• The Plan:
  • M: do HW0, described above.
  • W:
  • F: hand in HW1: 1.24, 1.26, 1.28, 1.32, 1.34
• NOTE: Friday is the last day to add classes

Week of September 1:

• Content this week:
  • More on box-and-whisker plots, the IQR, outliers
  • Normal distributions, standardizing normal RVs
  • The "68-95-99.7" Rule.
  • Finding a normal probability
  • Finding a z value for a given probability
• Read:
  • Chapter 3
• The Plan:
  • M:
  • W: hand in HW2: 1.36, 2.24, 2.28, 2.38, 2.40-46 even
  • F: Quiz 1 today
• NOTE: We do have classes on Monday, September 1st, even though it is indeed the federal Labor Day holiday.

Week of September 8:

• Content this week:
  • Two-dimensional data: explanatory v.s. response variables
  • Scatterplots
  • Correlation coefficient
  • Regression (least squares) line
  • Prediction with the regression line (extrapolation)
  • Residuals
  • Correlation does not imply causation
• Read:
  • Chapters 4 and 5
• The Plan:
  • M: hand in HW3: 3.2, 3.5, 3.10, 3.28, 3.30, 3.44-52 even
  • W: hand in HW4: 4.2-6 even
  • F: Quiz 2 today; hand in HW5: 4.10, 4.24, 4.28, 5.4, 5.8
• NOTE: Monday is the last day to drop classes.

Week of September 15:

• Content this week:
  • observational studies v.s. experiments
  • sample, population
  • simple random sample
  • experimental bias, control
  • randomness in sampling
  • double-blind experiments
• Read:
  • Chapters 8 and 9
• The Plan:
  • M:
  • W: hand in HW6: 5.30, 5.34, 5.36, 5.38
  • F: Quiz 3 today; hand in HW7: 8.28-8.36 even, 8.48

Week of September 22:

• Content this week:
  • nothing new, Test I
• The Plan:
  • M: Review; hand in HW8: 8.38, 9.28, 9.36, 9.44, 9.46
  • W: TEST I: bring your calculator
  • F: Test I post-mortem

Week of September 29:

• Content this week:
  • probability model
  • sample space, outcomes, events
  • random variable — discrete or continuous
  • density curve
• Read:
  • Chapter 10, but not the "Personal Probability" part on pp. 261-2 (it's arrant nonsense!)
• The Plan:
  • M: You may turn in re-worked Test I answers for extra credit.
  • W: hand in HW9: 10.29, 10.30, 10.32
  • F:
    • Due to the special event on campus today, students' absences will be excused and HW10 is due Monday. Note also that the quiz which should have happened today will take place instead on Monday.

Week of October 6:

• Content this week:
  • disjoint events
  • independent events
  • (general) addition rule
  • multiplication rule for probabilities of independent events
  • Bernoulli trials and the binomial distribution
• Read:
  • Chapter 12 and Chapter 13 (start)
• The Plan:
  • M: hand in HW10: 10.38, 10.40, 10.46, 10.52, 10.54
  • W:
  • F: Quiz 4 today; hand in HW11: 12.28, 12.44, 12.56

Week of October 13:

• Content this week:
  • continuing last week, so...
  • the binomial coefficient (and factorials)
  • the normal approximation to the binomial
  • The Law of Large Numbers
  • population mean, sample mean
  • sampling distribution
  • unbiased estimators
  • population/sample standard deviation
• Read:
  • Chapter 13 (finish) and Chapter 11 (start; skip pp. 286-292, anything to do with "process control")
• The Plan:
  • M:
  • W: hand in HW12: 13.6, 13.8, 13.22-26 even
  • F: Quiz 5 today

Week of October 20:

• Content this week:
  • Test II and post-test discussion
  • (and then) The Central Limit Theorem
• Read (starting only after the test is handed back):
  • Chapter 11 (finish; continue to skip pp. 286-292, anything to do with "process control")
• The plan:
  • M: Test II bring your calculator — before the test, hand in HW13: 13.28, 13.30, 13. 34, 11.26, 11.28
  • W: Test II post-mortem
  • F: dice games to experience the CLT
• NOTE: Friday is the last day to withdraw (with a W) from classes

Week of October 27:

• Content this week:
  • large-sample confidence intervals for means
  • confidence level
  • critical value on the Normal distribution
  • margin of error
  • dependence on sample size
• Read:
  • Chapter 14
• The plan:
  • M: finish discussion of the CLT; start confidence intervals
  • W: much more on CIs, particularly the confidence level
  • F: Quiz 6 today; hand in HW14: 11.12, 11.32, 11.34, 14.2, 14.6

Week of November 3:

• Content this week:
  • hypothesis testing/tests of significance
  • null hypothesis, alternative hypothesis
  • test statistic
  • p-value of a test
• Read:
  • Chapter 15
• The plan:
  • M: another discussion of the meaning of the confidence level of a confidence interval; start an overview of hypothesis testing
  • W: concrete hypothesis test -- the test statistic and p-value of a test; hand in HW15: 14.26, 14.28, 14.30, 14.32, 15.4, 15.6 [Note: this HW was posted late, so submissions on Friday will be accepted as on time.]
  • F: Quiz 7 today; more hypothesis testing

Week of November 10:

• Content this week:
  • inference about a population mean
  • the T-distribution
  • small sample confidence intervals for means
  • the T test — hypothesis (significance) testing for means
• Read:
  • Chapter 18
• The plan:
  • M: ; hand in HW16: 15.18, 15.36, 15.40, 15.46, 15.52
  • W:
  • F: Quiz 8 today; hand in HW17: 18.2, 18.28, 18.36

Week of November 17:

• Content this week:
  • Test III (on Friday)
• Read:
  • Chapter 16
• The plan:
  • M:
  • W: test review -- here is a review sheet; hand in HW18: 18.42, 18.44, 16.34, 16.44
  • F: Test III bring your calculator

Week of November 24:

• Thanksgiving Break! No classes, of course.

Week of December 1:

• Content this week:
  • two-sample problems, set up
  • two-sample standard error
  • two-sample t-statistic
  • two-sample confidence intervals
  • two-sample hypothesis testing
• Read:
  • Chapter 19, but only up to p.473
• The plan:
  • M: handing back Test III -- here is a solution sheet
  • W: Quiz 9 today
  • F: final review; hand in HW19: 19.2, 19.4, 19.8, 19.10, 19.30

Week of December 8:

• Exam week, no classes.
• ... but an excellent tutor in the Gen Ed Tutoring Center will be running an extra review session at 1pm on Wednesday, December 10th in Psych 232
• Our FINAL EXAM is on Thursday, December 11, 2008, from 1-3:20pm in our usual classroom: bring your calculator