Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Course Syllabus
Course
Number: MATH 2400
Course
Title: Elementary Statistics
Credit
Hours: 3 semester hours
Prerequisite: Three hours of college mathematics. A student will not be allowed credit for MATH
2400 after completing MATH 3300 with a grade of "C" or above.
Class Times: MWF 8:00 – 8:55 a.m.
Withdrawal Deadline: Tuesday, October 7
Instructor: Dr.
Dianna Spence
Office:
E-Mail: djspence@ngcsu.edu
Phone: (706) 864-1808
Web: http://radar.ngcsu.edu/~djspence
Office
Hours: MWF
Text/Materials: Moore, The Basic Practice of Statistics, 4th
edition. W. H. Freeman, 2006.
TI-83,
TI-83 Plus, or TI-84 Graphing Calculator (required)
Student
account on StatsPortal website (required)
To set up your StatsPortal account:
·
You must buy an
activation code either in the bookstore or online
·
Go to http://www.whfreeman.com/portals/bps4e
·
Select REGISTER an
Activation Code (or PURCHASE
access)
·
Follow the
prompts, and select state (GA), school (NGCSU), and course/instructor (Math
2400/Spence)
·
Make sure you use a
valid e-mail address that you check regularly!
Policies and Expectations
Attendance: Attendance
is required. Any student that is absent more than 14%
of the scheduled class meetings (6 absences) may be dropped with a WF.
You are responsible for all
material covered, all announcements made, and all assignments given in every
class, whether or not you are present.
Keeping up with these items is your responsibility.
Tardiness
and/or early departures:
Attendance
is taken in a variety of ways, both at the start and at the end of class. If it is determined that you have missed the
beginning or the end of a class, you will be charged with half an
absence.
Evaluation
and Grading:
Student performance will be evaluated
through in-class assignments, homework, projects, 3 tests, and a final
exam. The final grade will be computed
as follows.
Classwork
(lowest 1 dropped) 10%
Homework (online and
written; lowest 1 dropped) 15%
Projects (best 3 of 4) 25%
Tests (3) 25%
Final Exam 25%
Letter
grades are assigned according to the following scale:
A 90 –
100%
B 80 – 89%
C 70 – 79%
D 60 – 69%
F 59% and
below
Missed work: If you miss class, you will
receive a zero on the classwork assigned for the day. At the instructor’s discretion, an online
make-up assignment may be provided for you to complete in place of classwork,
provided you have documentation of legitimate circumstances that required you
to miss class.
There are NO
make-up tests. With proper
documentation of a legitimate extenuating circumstance in advance, you may arrange
to take a test BEFORE it is administered to the rest of the class. If such arrangements are not made and you
miss a test, you will receive a zero on the test. In the rare event that a legitimate
unforeseen extenuating circumstance prevents you from being in class on the day
of a test, your final exam score will count as your score for the missed
test.
Late work: Homework assignments and
projects submitted late will be penalized 25% per calendar day; thus,
assignments not received within 3 days of the due date will receive a grade of
zero. PLAN AHEAD! If you know of potential schedule conflicts
or circumstances that could interfere with your
submitting an assignment on time, make arrangements to complete the assignment
early. Extensions are only granted for legitimate
unforeseen extenuating circumstances.
In the rare event that such circumstances prevent you from submitting
an assignment on time, if proper documentation is provided, an extension may
be granted at the instructor’s discretion.
Academic Integrity:
All work submitted is expected to be
your own. Students are expected to adhere to the Academic Integrity Policy for
the University: "On my honor, I
will not lie, cheat, steal, plagiarize, evade the
truth or tolerate those who do." Violations of the Academic
Integrity Policy will be reported to the Academic Integrity Council in an
incident report. Please refer the to NGCSU’s
Undergraduate Bulletin for additional details.
I reserve the right to use any means necessary to
detect cheating and/or plagiarism.
Withdrawals: You may withdraw with a grade of “W” any time on or before the
withdrawal deadline.
Class evaluations: Class
evaluations at NGCSU are now conducted on-line through Banner. Evaluation of the class is considered a component
of the course and students will not be permitted to access their course grade
until the evaluation has been completed.
The evaluations will be accessible beginning one week prior to Final
Exam week. Specific instructions will be
made available when the surveys are activated.
Course Content and Resources
Description: A noncalculus introduction to descriptive and inferential
statistics. Topics include graphical and
numerical methods of describing data, hypothesis testing, linear regression and
correlation, the normal distribution, and estimation.
Course
Content:
1. Graphical and numerical methods of describing data.
2. The normal distribution.
3. Correlation and linear regression.
4. Hypothesis testing.
5. Estimation.
Course
Objectives:
On completion of the course, students will be able to:
·
Distinguish the
use of descriptive statistics from the use of inferential statistics.
·
Distinguish
qualitative data from quantitative data.
·
Construct a
frequency distribution and relative frequency distribution for a given set of
data.
·
Construct a
histogram polygon for a given set of data.
·
Compute and
provide a qualitative interpretation for the mode, median, and mean of a given
set of data.
·
Compute and
provide a qualitative interpretation for the range and standard deviation of a
given set of data.
·
Find the
proportion of data between two given values for a normal distribution.
·
Find the value of
a given percentile for a normal distribution.
·
Compare scores
from two different normal distributions using standard scores.
·
Construct a scatterplot for a given set of paired data.
·
Compute and
provide a qualitative interpretation for the correlation coefficient of a given
set of paired data.
·
Compute the slope
and Y-intercept of the least squares prediction line and use the equation for
the least squares prediction line to predict the value of one variable from the
value of the other.
·
Compute and
provide a qualitative interpretation for the standard error of prediction of a
given set of paired data.
·
Provide a
strategy for collecting a random sample from a given population.
·
Compute and
provide a qualitative interpretation for the mean of all sample means and the
standard error of the mean for a given population and sample size.
·
Perform the six
steps of hypothesis testing for a z-test, t-test, t-test for two independent
samples, and t-test for two matched samples.
·
Distinguish Type
I errors from Type II errors and provide a strategy for minimizing the chance
of one or the other occurring.
·
Find and provide
a qualitative interpretation for a confidence interval.
·
Perform the six
steps of hypothesis testing for a chi-square test.
·
Determine the
appropriate hypothesis test to use in a given situation.
·
·
G. Kanji, 100
Statistical Tests, Sage,
·
J. Stevens, Intermediate
Statistics: A Modern Approach,
·
J. Stevens, Applied
Multivariate Statistics for the Social Sciences,
·
R. Mason, Statistical Design and Analysis of
Experiments, Wiley,
·
C. Cox, A Handbook of Introductory Statistical
Methods, Wiley,
·
D. Fraser, Probability and Statistics: Theory and
Applications, Duxbury Press,
·
J. Hodges, Jr.
and E. Lehmann, Basic
Concepts of Probability and Statistics, Holden-Day,
World Wide Web Resources:
·
SurfStat
·
HyperStat OnLine Textbook - http://davidmlane.com/hyperstat/index.html
·
Globally
Accessible Statistical Procedures - http://www.stat.sc.edu/rsrch/gasp/
·
Statistics on the
Web - http://www.execpc.com/~helberg/statistics.html
·
·
World of
Mathematics (Encyclopedia) - http://mathworld.wolfram.com/
·
SOS
Mathematics - http://www.sosmath.com/
·
Intermath
- http://www.intermath-uga.gatech.edu/
Technology
Resources:
·
TI-83 or TI-84 (or
TI-83Plus/TI-84Plus) Graphing Calculator
– this is a required and essential
learning tool for this course. You should purchase or borrow one of
these exact models. All in-class
demonstrations will use one of these models.
·
Microsoft Excel – Students should have access to and be familiar with
Microsoft Excel. Excel spreadsheets will be a major part of the
projects.
·
Internet Access – Students should be able to access these Internet
sites without difficulty:
Instructor’s
web page: http://radar.ngcsu.edu/~djspence
StatsPortal
website http://www.whfreeman.com/portals/bps4e
Disabilities
and Accommodations:
Early Intervention Program:
NGCSU
has implemented an Early Alert/Early Intervention Program. Because I am committed to your success in
this course and at this university, I may refer you to other persons and/or
services at the university designed to help you achieve your academic goals.
You will be expected to comply with the referrals and take advantage of the
help offered to you. Please understand that such referrals are not a form of
punishment; rather, they are intended to help you.