Colorado State University, Pueblo, Fall 2008
Math 156 — Introduction to Statistics
Section 3, MWF 11-11:50 ["Workshop Statistics"]
Homework Assignments & Course Schedule

In the following all sections and page numbers refer to the required course textbook, Workshop Statistics: Discovery with Data and the Graphing Calculator, Third Edition, by Allan Rossman, Beth Chance, and J. Barr Von Oehsen.

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:
  • Observational units
  • quantitative variables
  • categorical variables (which can even be binary)
  • bar graph, dot plot (histogram)
  • center, spread ... interpretation of histograms
• Read:
  • To the Student, pp. xxi-xxii.
  • Organization of Workshop Statistics, p. xxiii-xxvii
  • Topic 1
  • Topic 2
• The plan:
  • M: organizational discussion in class; do HW0, described above.
  • W: 1-1, 1-2 (skimmed) and 1-4 in class
  • F: 2-1, 2-3, 2-5 in class; hand in HW1: 1-9, 1-13, 1-15
• NOTE: Friday is the last day to add classes

Week of September 1:

• Content this week:
  • population v.s. sample
  • samples have a size and can be representative or biased
  • parameter v.s. statistic
  • explanatory v.s. response variables
  • observational study
  • lurking and confounding variables
  • simple random sample (or SRS)
  • sampling variability
• Read:
  • Topic 3
  • Topic 4
• The plan:
  • M: 3-1, 3-2 in class; hand in HW2: 2-10, 2-13
  • W: 3-3, 3-4, 4-1 (start) in class; hand in HW3: 3-7, 3-8
  • F: Quiz 1 today; 4-1 (finish), 4-2, 4-3&4 (as a class) in class; no HW to hand in 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:
  • more on representative and bias
  • a simple random sample, SRS
  • anecdotal evidence (is bad)
  • experiments (as opposed to "observational studies")
  • randomized assignment and especially randomized comparative experiments
  • a placebo and the placebo effect
  • blind and double blind experiments
• Read:
  • Topic 5
• The plan:
  • M: discussion of "representative", "bias" and issues of recent HWs and Friday's quiz, in class; finished 4-2
  • W: 5-1, 5-2 in class; hand in HW4: 4-12, 4-16, 4-20
  • F: Quiz 2 today; 5-2, 5-4 in class; hand in HW5: 5-7, 5-9, 5-10
• NOTE: Monday is the last day to drop classes.

Week of September 15:

• Content this week:
  • qualitative features of distributions: center, spread, shape, outliers
  • three shapes to identify: symmetric, skewed to the right, skewed to the left
  • stemplots, sometimes which are side-by-side
  • histograms and how to make them, also on the calculator
• Read:
  • Topic 7
• The plan:
  • M: 7-1, 7-2 in class; hand in HW6: 5-19, 5-20
  • W: 7-3, 7-4, in class; hand in HW7: 7-8, 7-10
  • F: Quiz 3 today; 7-5 in class; hand in HW8: 7-9, 7-11, 7-12

Week of September 22:

• Content this week:
  • Test I on Wednesday, and therefore
  • review on Monday. also, on Monday, is due HW9: 7-17, 7-20, 7-21, 7-22
• TEST I on Wednesday: bring your calculator

Week of September 29:

• Content this week:
  • Measures of the center of data: mean, median, and mode
  • sensitivity to outliers of these measures of center
• Read:
  • Topic 8
• The plan:
  • M: 8-1, 8-2 (start) in class; hand in, if you like, re-worked Test I answers for (some) extra credit
  • W: 8-2 (finish), 8-6, 8-12, in class; hand in HW10: 8-8, 8-11
  • F: discussing recent and upcoming HW and test re-dos in class; hand in HW11: 8-17, 8-18 (you will have to figure out and enter the data by hand)
    • Due to the special event on campus today, students' absences will be excused and HW11 will be accepted if it comes in on Monday. Note also that the quiz which should have happened today will take place instead on Monday.

Week of October 6:

• Content this week:
  • measures of the spread of data: standard deviation and inter-quartile range (SD and IQR)
  • quartiles
  • the empirical rule for bell-shaped distributions, also known as the 68-95-99.7 Rule
  • standardizing data to get z-scores
  • the five-number summary of some data
  • a boxplot (or box and whisker plot) is a visual version of the five-number summary.
• Read:
  • Topic 9
  • Topic 10
• The plan:
  • M: 9-1, 9-2, 9-3 (start) in class; hand in HW12: 8-23, 8-24, 8-27.
  • W: 9-3 (finish), 9-4, 9-5, in class; hand in HW13: 9-10, 9-17, 9-20
  • F: Quiz 4 today; 10-1, 10-2, in class; hand in HW14: 9-11, 9-14

Week of October 13:

• Content this week:
  • scatterplots
  • association in two-variable data
  • the form of an association: linear or curved
  • the direction of an association: positive or negative
  • the strength of an association: strong, moderate, or weak
  • the correlation coefficient and its properties/meaning
• Read:
  • Topic 26
  • Topic 27
• The plan:
  • M: 26-1, 26-2, 26-3, in class; hand in HW15: 10-6, 10-15, 10-20, 10-22
  • W: 26-6, 27-2 (using a subset of the data), 27-3 (using a subset of the data), in class
  • F: Quiz 5 today; finish Topic 27, in class; hand in HW16: 26-9, 26-10, 26-12

Week of October 20:

• Content this week:
  • Test II and post-test discussion
  • (least squares) regression line [starting]
• Read (starting only after the test is handed back):
  • Topic 28
• The plan:
  • M: Test II bring your calculator — also be sure to bring your book as I will examine the completed in-class Activities from your books during the test; before the test, hand in HW17: 27-9, 27-12, 27-17
  • W: Test II post-mortem
  • F: introduction to regression
• NOTE: Friday is the last day to withdraw (with a W) from classes

Week of October 27:

• Content this week:
  • the least squares regression line
  • residuals
  • using the LSRL for prediction
  • finding the equation of the LSRL with the calculator or by hand
  • the coefficient of determination
  • residual plots
  • the Normal distribution
  • calculating Normal probabilities (areas under the Normal curve)
  • standardizing Normal RVs
  • using the Standard Normal Table; symmetries
• Read:
  • Topic 28
  • Topic 12
• The plan:
  • M: continued intro to regression, discussed 28-5, 28-10 as a class, started 28-3 in groups
  • W: finish 28-3, in class
  • F: Quiz 6 today; 12-1, 12-2 (skip e), in class; hand in HW18: 28-6, 28-7, 28-8, 28-24

Week of November 3:

• Content this week:
  • a sample proportion p-hat, which is a statistic used to study the population proportion π
  • sampling variability causes a sample statistic to have a sampling distribution as the experiment is repeated and the sample recalculated.
  • The Central Limit Theorem [for proportions]: For sufficiently large sample sizes n, the sampling distribution of the sample proportion p-hatis a Normal distribution with mean equal the population proportion π and whose standard deviation is SQRT(π(1-π)/n).
• Read:
  • Topic 12
  • Topic 13
• The plan:
  • M: finish 12-2, 12-3, in class;
  • W: 13-1, 13-2 (all together), in class; hand in HW19: 12-5, 12-6, 12-7, and 12-10
  • F: Quiz 7 today; finish 13-2, 13-3, in class;

Week of November 10:

• Content this week:
  • confidence intervals [CIs] for proportions
  • margin of error
  • standard error
  • VERY IMPORTANT: the confidence level of a CI
  • conditions under which our CIs are reasonably accurate: np≥10 and n(1-p)≥10
  • determining the sample size needed to achieve a certain margin of error.
• Read:
  • Topic 13
  • Topic 16
• The plan:
  • M: 16-1, 16-2, in class; hand in HW20: 12-16, 12-17, 13-5, 13-7, 13-8
  • W: 16-3, 16-4 (all together), in class;
  • F: Quiz 8 today; 16-4 (finish), 16-5, in class; hand in HW21: 13-14, 16-12, 16-13, 16-19

Week of November 17:

• Content this week:
  • continuing confidence intervals
  • Test III (on Friday)
• Read:
  • Topic 17
• The plan:
  • M: finishing activities from Topic 16, in class;
  • W: test review, in class — here is a review sheet ; hand in HW22: 16-21, 16-23
  • F: TEST III: bring your calculator

Week of November 24:

• Thanksgiving Break! No classes, of course.

Week of December 1:

• Content this week:
  • tests of significance (also called hypothesis tests)
  • the null hypothesis
  • the alternative hypothesis
  • one-sided (or one-tailed) vs two-sided (or two-tailed) tests
  • the test statistic of a test of significance
  • the p-value of a test (it's meaning is VERY IMPORTANT)
  • the significance level of a test
  • test decisions
  • conditions for the validity of these tests:
    • data is from a SRS
    • nπ₀≥10,n(1-π₀)≥10
• Read:
  • Topic 17
• The plan:
  • M: 17-1, in class; also some discussion of Test III (here is a solution sheet, unfortunately missing the graphs -- come to me for those, or get them in from version handed out in class)
  • W: 17-2 and starting final review, in class;
  • F: Quiz 9 today [Hint: it will be identical to one of the Test III problems]; continuing final review in class; hand in HW23: 17-8, 17-12, 17-19, 17-20, 17-24a-c

Week of December 8:

• Exam week, no classes.
• ... but we will have an extra review session at 1pm on Monday, December 8th in a room to be determined (but look on the door of our usual classroom at that time for an update with the correct room number)
• Our FINAL EXAM is on Wednesday, December 10, 2008, from 10:30-12:50pm in our usual classroom: bring your calculator