Math 243
Probability and Statistics
Fall 2002

Course Home Page

Course Description

Instructor

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

Time & Location

Section A

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 9:00-9:50, in North Hall B64

Office Hours

Regular office hours are currently scheduled for

Mondays	1:30-2:20
Tuesdays	10:30-11:20
Thursdays	10:30-11:20
Fridays	3:30-4:20

If these times do not work for you, other times can be arranged by appointment. Alternatively, you can simply stop by my office and see if I am available. (You might like to consult my current schedule before proposing a time.)

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 prefer to read your email from an account other than your calvin student account and do not have it set up to forward automatically, 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 KnightVision.

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: Friday, 06-Dec-2002 12:05:02 EST.)
• 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 (appearing shortly before each test date).

For quick access to these and other resources, see the navigation bar at the top of this page.

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.

Textbook

The required text for this course is Probability and Statistics (5th edition) by Jay L. Devore

Grading

Grading will be based on the following approximate weighting:

15%	Homework, etc.
60%	Tests (9/27, 10/28, 11/26?)
25%	Final Exam (12/16)

Tests should be taken when they are scheduled. I do not generally offer make-up, alternate or late tests. Instead, if you miss one test (for any reason) or if your final exam score is better than your worst test, then your final exam score will be substituted for that test.

Technology

Many of the computations involved in statistics can be automated using a computer or hand-held calculator. The text book comes with a CD that contains many of the data sets from examples and problems of the book. Generally, you should feel free to make use of any calculator or statistical software when doing your homework (there will be a few exceptions where I want you to do things more or less "by hand" using only non-statistical funtions of your calculators).

In class I plan to use a statistical package called R. R is free and available for Mac, PC, or Linux. It has also been installed on the computers in the Macintosh Lab (NH B69). See the class R page for more information about R.

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