Math 143 F
Probability and Statistics
Spring 2000

Course Home Page

Course Description

• Producing Good Data
  • Goal: To understand the basic methodologies of observational studies and randomized experiments.
• Describing and Analyzing Data
  • Goal: To understand several basic statistical summaries (numerical and graphical) and their use to summarize data sets.
• Drawing Trustworthy Conclusions from Data
  • Goal: To understand the basic principles that allow us to draw conclusions about a large population from information collected from a smaller sample.
  • Goal: To understand in detail the mathematics involved in several of the most commonly used statistical procedures.
• Considering the Role of Statistics in Contemporary Society and in Various Academic Disciplines
  • Goal: To become an educated consumer of statistics as reported in the mass media and in technical reports.

Instructor

Randall Pruim
office: North Hall 284
phone: (616) 957-7113
E-mail: rpruim@calvin.edu

Time & Location

Tuesday, Thursday 6:00 - 8:00 pm, in North Hall 295

Office hours

By appointment.

My schedule this semester varies from week to week, but if you send me an email or catch me after class, we can probably arrange a time to meet fairly easily.

In addition to my office hours, there is also a statistics help session every Monday and Wednesday from 4-5:30 pm in NH 295. This program is run through the Student Academic Services office.

Internet Resources

Email

I will maintain an email list of all students registered in this class and will occasionally use it to distribute information and reminders of various things pertaining to this course. If you do not know how to access your email, please talk to someone at the IT help desk. If you prefer to read your email from an account other than your calvin student account, send me email with the email address you prefer. You can also send email to the class list or particular students in the class via BlackBoard.

Please check your email daily. You are responsible for any information communicated via email.

Web Pages

In addition to this home page, I will also maintain a list of web resources pertaining to this course. You are responsible for any information appearing on the course web pages. Items I have prepared and maintain online include

• a customizable calendar of daily readings, lecture topics, exams, homework etc. (Last modification: [an error occurred while processing this directive].)
• a list of homework assignments. Due dates will be maintained on the calendar above. (I may also distribute these via email.)
• information about tests and exams.
• web overheads used in class.

BlackBoard CourseInfo

I am also making partial use of Calvin's BlackBoard CourseInfo. instructional resources. You can go to BlackBoard to check your grades, send email to individuals or groups in the class, and to read all the other information (like this page) that I have on line. For more information on how to use CourseInfo, see the online tutorial.

Other Important Information

See me

If you are having difficulty with any portion of the course, do not hesitate to see me. Do this as soon as possible, certainly well in advance of any deadlines (like tests) so that we can work to fix the problem.

Required Textbook

Introduction to the Practice of Statistics, Third Edition by D.S. Moore and G.P. McCabe.

Additional readings may also be assigned.

Grading

Grading will be based on the following approximate weighting:

        10%    Homework 
        10%    Quizzes and Labs
	25%    Test 1
        25%    Test 2
        30%    Final Exam

Tests are currently scheduled for the following dates:

• Thursday, March 9;
• Thursday, April 13;

Quizzes. In-class quizzes may be given at any time. Often I will let you know in advance when they will be, but not always.

Quizzes cannot not be made up for those who miss them, but I will drop your lowest quiz or two at the end of the semester.

Homework. You will not be able to master the material in this course without practice. I will make assignments every day. Some portions of these assignments will be collected and others will not. Please follow the guidelines below:

1. Problems to be handed in should be worked neatly, showing all of your work and explaining your reasoning. The work should be organized in paragraph manner (work left to right and top to bottom; use English sentences to explain what you are doing, etc.).
2. Any work that is illegible or disorganized will not be graded.
3. Label each page with your name and the assignment. Each problem should be clearly labeled as well. Leave a little space between problems.
4. Each problem set should be on a separate sheet of paper. If you use more than one sheet of paper, these sheets must be stapled in the upper left corner. If you use spiral bound paper, please remove the fringe along the edge of the paper.

No late work will be accepted. I will drop your lowest 1 or 2 quizzes and your lowest 3 homework scores. This is intended to allow for the occasional absence, sickness, etc.

Joint Work

You may find it pleasant and useful to work together on many portions of this course. I encourage you to do so. BUT you must abide by the following guidelines:

• Balance. If you work together, do not work in a group that is too unbalanced. Certainly there are times when one person in a group has the key insight that solves a problem, but if the same person is always having all the insights, or if you are not contributing to the group effort, then you should probably seek out a different group.

  Balance also extends to preparation. Do not get answers or hints from someone who has completed the work before you have even begun. Ideally, each member of the group should come with roughly the same amount of background work done.

• Independence. Work that is turned in for a grade (except work explicitly designated as group work) should be written up independently. If you do this in proximity of study partners resist the temptation to "copy" or to lean too heavily on someone else (neither of which is not allowed), mistakenly thinking that you would have been able to do the work on your own.

Attendance

Attendance is required. If you miss class, you are missing an important part of this course. In class we will be doing activities that reinforce the statistical ideas covered in the textbook, viewing videos, discussing readings, answering questions. These are difficult things to replace in any other way.

We will often have a quiz or other activity that will also serve as an attendance check. Quizzes cannot be made up for students who miss class.

Preparing for class

You should bring with you each day:

• any homework due that day,
• your textbook,
• a calculator,
• any additional readings that have been handed out (put them in a folder so that you can locate them easily),
• and any other materials I announce ahead of time.

Of course, you should have read (and thought about) any assigned readings prior to coming to class. You may want to have your notes handy, especially if you have questions regarding the readings or homework.

Special Circumstances

Occasionally there are special circumstances that require that the rules and guidelines above be adjusted for a particular student. In such cases, it is the responsibility of the student to inform me of the situation as soon as possible, so that the appropriate arrangements can be made. This includes, but is not limited to, students with documented disabilities.

This page maintained by:
Randall Pruim
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Calvin College
rpruim@calvin.edu