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Resource Economics 211
Introductory Statistics for the Life Sciences
Fall 2008
Professor Dan Lass

MWF 9:05 - 9:55
Thompson 104

Syllabus

Objectives: The purpose of this course is to introduce you to the methods used in organizing data for meaningful analysis and to provide you with the tools for drawing inferences about populations. My goal is to help you develop an appreciation for the kinds of information presented daily in the press, a new way of considering the world about you. I hope you will develop the ability to use statistics in your future job and to interpret and judge survey results and statistics presented in the media. Statistics can be viewed as discovery through data. Knowledge of statistics is becoming increasingly important in this information age.

Teaching Assistants: Brent Dickinson, Ria Galiano, and Michelle Woodford will be TAs for this course. TA office hours will be held in Room 210 Stockbridge Hall Monday – Thursday, 6:00 – 9:00 PM. A schedule will be posted on the door of 210 Stockbridge Hall and on the course web site. Get to know the TAs; they are here to enhance your academic experience.

Required Texts: Elementary Statistics , Neil A. Weiss, 6 th ed., Pearson/Addison Wesley, 2005. A Student Solutions Manual and a few copies of the Student Edition ofMinitab (statistical software) will also be available. The Student Solutions Manual provides answers to selected problems in the text. You will be responsible for learning to use Minitab in this course. Minitab is available on OIT computers.

Cheating Policy: Cheating happens, especially in large GenEd courses. I hate cheaters and if you're caught cheating I will follow the University's established procedures to pursue the matter to the fullest extent possible (see your "Undergraduate Rights and Responsibilities" handbook). Bringing a friend's PRS clicker to class to enter repsonses for your friend is cheating and will be treated as such. At each lecture, we count the number of students in attendance. If there are fewer students attending the lecture than the number of PRS entries, then I will stop the lecture and ask who has mulitple clickers. If we do not discover who has the multiple clickers, the entire class will earn zero points for that lecture. Let's not have this happen this semester.

Prerequisite: Knowledge of high school algebra. You must also have access to a personal computer, a calculator, familiarity with the use of CD-ROMs and the internet. We will be using OWL - a web-based learning tool for assignments prior to each class and for online quizzes about every week.

Course Schedule: I plan to cover chapters 1 – 9 from the text in detail. If we have additional time, we will cover selected topics from chapters 10 – 13. I keep a list of lecture topics on the website. Lecture notes will be posted before each lecture in "template form" as PowerPoint slides and handouts. The "templates" show the basic topics for each PowerPoint slide, but animations and details are missing. These, of course, are filled in during class.

Discussion Sections: Basic material will be covered in lectures. Discussion sessions are led by TAs and provide you an opportunity to review material covered during the previous week, work textbook problems and try some activities. They are an opportunity to familiarize yourself with the methods used to solve problems and to resolve questions you may have about material covered during lectures. Discussion sections provide additional opportunities to obtain our guidance while learning statistics. Attendance is not required at discussion sessions.

Evening Examinations: There are 2 mid-semester examinations scheduled for Thursday, October 2, 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM and Thursday, November 6, 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM. Mark your calendars; no make-up exams will be given for work or personal conflicts. A poor performance or missed exam will not cause a significant penalty because you can choose to weight your lowest mid-semester exam just 10%.

Final Exam: A final exam, required of all students, will be scheduled during the final exam period. While the exam is comprehensive, it will cover material primarily from the last 6-8 weeks of the course.

Pre-Lecture OWL Assignments: Before each lecture, you will go to the OWL web site and complete the assigned Instructional Units (IUs). Most require that you answer multiple-choice questions about concepts in assigned readings. But, we also ask short answer and calculation questions in the pre-lectures. They are a first time exposure to course material. These pre-lecture exercises will also be one source of PRS quiz questions. Your Pre-Lecture assignment grade will be the percent of IUs mastered – we will drop your lowest 3 scores. There should be about 39 pre-lecture assignments. If, for example, you "master" 33 of these assignments, your Pre-Lecture OWL grade will be 91.67 percent.

OWL Quizzes: There will be 9 or 10 online quizzes posted approximately weekly through the semester. Each quiz is timed - you will have 1 - 3 hours depending upon the difficulty and time required. Once the clock on a quiz starts, it cannot be stopped by you or me! Only open a quiz when you are prepared and you have the necessary time to complete the quiz. Some quizzes that require calculations will be broken into multiple parts - each will have it's own time limit. Each quiz will remain active for at least 7 days, typically Monday through 8:00 AM on Tuesday. Each quiz consists of a number of OWL IUs; most IUs will have been included in one of the pre-lecture assignments. We will drop your lowest quiz score in calculating your final course grade.

Personal Response System: Personal Response System radio frequency (PRS - RF) transmitters will be used. PRS is not a required component of this course, but we do know that students who use PRS do better in their courses. If you choose not to use PRS, your final exam score will receive greater weight. PRS transmitters are available at the Textbook Annex for $49 new and $36.75 used. The Textbook Annex will buy them back at the end of the semester for $24.50. Each transmitter has a unique ID. Register your PRS ID number through OWL. (Visit the PRS website to learn more about the "clickers.")

PRS Quizzes: PRS transmitters will be used in every lecture for both “quiz” questions and "participation/survey" questions. For "quiz" questions, correct answers earn full credit, incorrect responses earn half credit. For "participation/survey" questions, all answers earn full credit (you get points just for participation). Each lecture carries equal weight - 1 point per lecture. If I ask just 2 PRS questions, each question is worth 1/2 point for that day. If you participate in a survey question and answer a "quiz" question incorrectly, your score for that day is 0.75. If I ask only 4 PRS "quiz" questions in the following lecture, each question is worth 1/4 point that day. If you answer 3 of the four "quiz" questions correctly, your score is 0.875 for that day. We will begin on Monday, September 8. I plan to use PRS in 38 lectures. We allow for 3 missed lectures (or dropping 3 low scores); your final grade will be based on 35 lectures. Your final PRS score is your percent of the 35 possible points.

Summary of Grading Scheme: You must choose a set of weights prior to the final exam and your weights must sum to 100%. The graded items include 3 active learning parts and 3 exams, including the final. If you do not make a choice, we use the default weights in the last column.

The minimum percentages needed for course grades are as follows:

Class Attendance: You are expected to attend and participate (using your PRS transmitter) in all lectures and discussion sessions. You are responsible for all material covered in lectures and discussions. The way to avoid any conceivable misunderstanding associated with this course is by attending classes. Under no circumstances should you expect to disregard the opportunities provided by course lectures, discussion sessions and office hours and then impose upon the TA or me at your own convenience. We will cover a large amount of material, much of it is likely unfamiliar. If your plan is to "study for the exam," you'll be in trouble. Statistics requires practice, and more practice. To effectively learn to apply the statistical concepts that will be taught in the course you will need a steady exposure to readings, activities and problems. The course is set up with exercises that lead you through small amouts of the material before and after each lecture. Stay on schedule - Don't Fall Behind.

Courtesies: Movement into and out of the room is difficult and is very disruptive to your colleagues and to me. Please observe common courtesies by arriving on time and quickly finding an open seat. The class starts promptly at 9:05. The class is just 50:00, not an unreasonable amount of time to expect you to sit still. Do not leave in the middle of class. Finally, this class is not a opportunity to chat with your friends, so please refrain from talking. You can enjoy your friend's company outside of class, perhaps over a cup of coffee.

Topics for each class and handouts are posted on the website.

Please feel free to ask questions of me during class, its part of my job. If you are confused, it is likely that someone else is as well.

Welcome to Intro Stats - I hope you enjoy the course. Stats is fun!!