This handout is also available in PDF.
Welcome to one of the Spring 2008 sessions of Grinnell College's MAT/SST
115 Introduction to Statistics, which is described relatively
briefly in the official blurb. My own
take on the course is that we will be working on making you quantitatively
literate: You should leave the course (a) able to think critically about
reports that include a quantiative component and (b) able to design your
own analyses and experiments to understand large data sets. That is, you
should be an informed consumer and producer of quantitative information.
Kent McClelland provides a
more detailed analysis of these learning objectives. In addition,
as we also be working on your general thinking and work skills, as all
Grinnell classes do.
This semester, all three sections of the course are following the
workshop model. Longstanding evidence in science education
suggests that students learn better and more if they participate actively
in working on problems than if they primarily listen to lecture and do
problems separately. This means that each day in class, you will come
in and work on a series of problems, most frequently with one or more
partners.
In this section of MAT/SST 115, we are also taking a different approach
to statistical software. Rather than the commercial software, Minitab,
we will be using an open-source statistical package, R. Details on that
software are available elsewhere in this Web site, as
are my reasons for using R.
In an attempt to provide up-to-date information, and to spare a few
trees, I am making this as much of a paperless
course as I can.
Hence, materials will be in a course web. If you are puzzled by the
organization of the Course Web, you may want to read the basic instructions for using this
course web. If you find that you want paper copies of pages, please
read the notes on printing copies. If you find
that you are regularly printing pages, let me know and I can provide
them for you.
Warning! To succeed in a workshop-style course, you need
to participate actively in your own education. (After all, that's part
of the point of workshop-style courses.) If you are not prepared to
participate actively, please drop this class and take a section next year
that is offered in a more traditional style.
Warning! We'll be using computers a lot in this class.
Computers are sentient, stupid, and malicious. When things go wrong,
don't blame yourself. Ask me, a tutor, or the class mentor for help.
Warning! We are using some cutting-edge software, which
means that things will occasionally crash for no good reason.
Meets: MTWF 1:00-2:05, Science 3819
Instructor:
Samuel A. Rebelsky
(rebelsky@grinnell.edu),
Science 3824. 269-4410 (office). 236-7445 (home).
Office hours MTuWF 10:00-11:00, Tu 1:15-2:05, MF 2:15-3:00.
I am also available at other times by appointment. I also tend to follow an
open door policy: Feel free to stop by when my door is open.
Co-Instructor:
Katherine McClelland,
(mcclella@grinnell.edu),
Science 2012A.
269-3060.
Class Mentor: Cassie Sims
(rebelsky@grinnell.edu).
Office hours Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, 9-10 p.m.
Class Grader: Eric Davenport
Grading (subject to change):
- Attendance and class participation: 10%
- Regular homework: 15%
- Two data-analysis projects (tentatively weeks 10 and 13): 25%
- Presentation: 5%
- Memo: 5%
- Poster: 10%
- Poster reviews: 5%
- Three in-class examinations (tentatively weeks 5, 10, and 14): 30%
- The third examination was replaced by a series of exam-lettes
- Final examination: 20%. (2 p.m., Thursday, May 15)
I will drop your lowest homework grade.
Extra Credit:
I will often offer 1/2 point of extra credit for attending a particular
talk (e.g., a computer science talk or college convocation) or for
supporting your classmates in their public endeavors (e.g., attending
a concert or a dance recital). Each category is capped at 1.5 points.
Throughout the term, I may suggest other forms of extra credit.
Tutoring:
The Math Lab provides tutoring for 115. Your class mentor will also provide
some particular hours. Note that the Math Lab statistics tutors will be
better equipped to help you with general statistics issues than with specific
questions on the R software.
Rossman, Allan J. and Beth L. Chance. (2008). Workshop Statistics:
Discovery with Data. Third Edition. Emeryville, CA: Key College Publishing
The primary book for the class. This text contains both explanations of
statistical concepts and a series of exercises to help you learn these
concepts.
Your Name Here. (2008). Laboratory Notebook.
In addition to the textbook, you will need a laboratory notebook in which
you will record your answers to problems. The textbook also provides
spaces in which to record your answers to problems. However, if you write
in the textbook, it will be difficult for you to resell it or to share it
with a colleague. More importantly, we will occasionally ask you to turn in
your work from the book, and it will be easier to provide us with a lab
note book than with your book. You need not use one of the fancy lab notebooks
for this class: you can use any bound notebook you deem appropriate, including
a spiral-bound notebook.
Rebelsky, Samuel A. (2008). MAT/SST 115.03 2008S Course Web. Online
resource available at
http://www.cs.grinnell.edu/~rebelsky/Courses/MAT115/2008S/.
The course web, which will contain all the handouts you need for the class,
as well as additional useful information.
Success in a workshop-style class, like success in any class, requires
effort on your part. To be successful, you must do a variety of things.
- Before each class, you must do appropriate preparatory work.
Often, preparatory work includes a few short readings and a
few preliminary problems.
- During each class, you must participate actively in the
exercises. Among other things, you should think carefully about
the questions presented, discuss ideas with your colleagues, and
record your answers, often in full sentences. In order to
particpate actively, you will need to bring your textbook and
notebook to each class.
- After each class, you should reflect on the key points.
Among other things, you should read the topic summary,
record ideas in your notebook.
apply you new knowledge to homework problems, and
- Whenever you are confused, you should also ask for help.
During class, the instructor, co-instructor, and mentor will circulate
through the classroom and do our best to encourage you. You should
certainly feel free to call us over if you have questions. Outside
of class, visit us in our offices or send us email.
Printing Pages:
Most of these pages are designed for viewing onscreen. If you'd like
to print them, you may want to use PDF versions, which are designed
for paper. Many pages have links directly to the PDF version. If there
isn't such a link, simply replace the html at the end of
the URL with pdf.
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