Introduction to Statistics

Professor:
Email:
Phone:
Office: 		Dan Schult
dschult@colgate.edu
7651
McGregory 314 		Spring 2011
Office Hours:
Thurs 3-5, Fri 10-11
or by appointment.

Course Resources

Required Textbook: Statistics, 4th ed., David Freedman, Robert Pisani and Roger Purves, Norton, 2007. (Abbreviated FPP.)
Supplementary readings:There will be quite a few supplemental readings for the course. They are available online via the library's Lexis-Nexis database or on the web..

Startup for the Course:

First Assignment: Your first assignment is to "get on the web". You should go to the course home page at: http://math.colgate.edu/math102/index.html Or, just math/math102 if you are on campus. Follow the link to our section and you probably should bookmark that page. Once there, look around at what is available. All of the assignments and articles for the semester are on-line. You should make sure you can print from the Web; so... print out the assignment for Unit 1. (You don't have to do it yet--It's due next Monday)

Excel: Make sure that you can use Excel on some machine on campus with the "Analysis Toolpak". Find a machine with Excel on it. Start it up. Check the "Tools" menu for an item called "Data Analysis...". If it is there, you need do no more. If it is not there, use the "Add-ins..." item in the "Tools" menu to add the "Analysis Toolpak" to the tools menu. After you select that toolpak, the "Tools" menu should be updated to have the "Data Analysis..." item at the bottom. This process will differ on different versions of Office. If it doesn't work for you, you should search for "load the Analysis ToolPak Excel 2007" or whatever you version of Excel is. The machines in the library (and other public labs) are already set up. Your assignment is to get that Toolpak to appear in Excel on some machine you feel comfortable using.

Course Policy

Weekly Assignments: Weekly Assignments are posted on the webpage (see above). Homework assignments will be collected approximately weekly. Computer projects amnd one mid-term project paper are also part of each assignment. Your lowest paper/computer project score and your two lowest homework scores will be dropped in the calculation of your grade for the semester.

Class Survey: Just after spring break, as part of the final project, I will ask you to submit questions to appear on a class-wide survey which you will then take. The questions should demonstrate good survey design techniques. This exercise will make up part of the final project grade.

Mid-Term Paper: One writing assignment (Mid-term paper) will be part of the weekly assignments in place of a computer project. It will give you the results of some analysis and ask you to write a conclusion and critique section. The goal is to help you write your final projects.

Final Project: The final project provides you with an opportunity to apply what you learn in class to an in depth study of something that interests you. It may involve the design and completion of a survey or study, a detailed investigation of a topic we touch lightly in class, or a computer based project using data from a pre-existing database.
A project proposal detailing plans for your project is due on March 11, 2011.
A progress report with description of the data you will use is due on April 15, 2011.
Completed final projects are due on the last day of class, which is Friday, April 29, 2011.

Mid-term Exam schedule: Mid-term Exams will be held during the Common Exam Period on Tuesdays. The exams will be held on

Final Exam: A cumulative final exam will be given during the officially scheduled final exam period for this course. The date and time for this exam cannot be altered. Please consult the final exam schedule before making travel plans.

Grades: Your grade will be determined by your work on weekly assignments (15%), final project (20%), mid-term exams (20% each), and the final exam (25%).