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Required Texts [also see Beat This Price]:Statistics for Management and Economics, Keller, Abbreviated w/CD 7th Edition: (ISBN: 0324376332)Student Edition of Minitab Version 14 will be bundled with the text and you will use it in this course and FOMGT 250 next semester and very likely in your first job! Excel is also a useful tool for Statistics but it is not a full Statistical Analysis package. The Student CD is also needed and is included in the new bundle. You will need all these next semester in FOMGT 250. The UMass Textbook Annex has the new bundle for $153.75 and $105 for a used copy with a 50% buyback. If you buy a used copy, try to get the CD included in the pocket of the back cover. Interwrite RF PRS clicker:In addition, you will need a Radio Frequency Personal Response transmitter for use during lectures and in your new textbook bundle you will get a $20 rebate coupon. Also, the Textbook Annex will buy it back for $24.50 when you return your transmitter to them at the end of the semester, or you can keep it for use in other UMass courses. If you can find a lower price for our required bundle, please email me and I will post the info under “Beat this Price” on our web site. Supplemental Text:You are not required to buy this supplement, but it has proved
useful in past semesters. Calculators:One cannot do real stats without a calculator, and now most of us use
a computer. For exams you must use a calculator, not even a Cell Phone, a Palm or a Pocket PC . I like the TI-83+, the TI-84+ and the T1-89 (sells for about $85 or $100),
or the cheaper TI-30 (sells for about $12), but any calculator that has a memory button, does
square roots, factorials and the basic arithmetic will do; especially
if the package mentions Statistics (i.e., most any calculator that wasn't
given to you as a freebie will be fine. See me or your TA is you want
help). Course Objective:This is the first course in a two-course sequence for Isenberg School of Management majors and Res Econ majors who take Res Ec 312 after this course. The purpose of this course is to introduce you to the methods used in organizing data for meaningful analysis and to provide the appropriate tools for drawing inferences from these data. Also, I hope you’ll gain a new way to view the world about you. My goal is to prove that statistics is not a dry, limited subject but a fascinating field with broad applicability. In the process I want to convince you that STATS IS FUN, as well as extremely useful in an age where numbers are increasingly used, and abused. After taking this course you will be able to test your ideas (hypotheses) with a limited amount of information (data) and to judge the usefulness of survey results commonly found in the media. Statistics can be viewed as “Discovery through Data.” Prerequisite:Knowledge of high school algebra. You must have access to a personal computer and great access to the Internet. You will check your "Skills for Stats" by doing the OWL assignments that check your math skills. Time Schedule:Our text has 18 chapters and we will cover the first 12 chapters in almost sequential order. In FOMGT 250, next semester, you will cover most of the remaining chapters. The course calendar is on our Web Site with live links to the lectures as they are posted. PRS Grading:At each lecture, roughly 2 to 6 questions will be asked using PRS. Your PRS score will be based on participation and correct responses to stats questions that are identified as "counters" during each lecture. Since many questions do not have correct answers you receive full credit on those for any submitted answer. Thus your PRS score will be far greater than 50% for the semester; typically about 75%, if you answer every PRS question and even if you are wrong on all questions that are “counters” [that is they have a correct answer and we expect you should know the answer]. PRS is used to help you learn and should improve your grade, but if your PRS score is less than your Final Exam score, we remove PRS from your grade and add its weight to the final exam's weight. Obviously, you must have your new Radio Frequency Interwrite PRS transmitter with you at each lecture to earn these points. We begin using PRS in Lecture 2, so get your clicker soon and register it with the OWL Registration Tool. At each lecture you can earn two points regardless of the number of PRS questions asked that day. At each lecture I will ask from 1 to many PRS Questions, but the total number of points per lecture is always two points. Your earn half of each question's value by answering with any response and the other half is earned by having the correct response. For example, if I only have one PRS question, then that question is worth two points and if you answer incorrectly you earn one point, and if you answer correctly you get two poitns. If I ask 4 "counter" questions, then each one is worth half a point and you get one-quarter of a point for each incorrect answer and one-half of a point for each correct answer. You may miss three PRS days before your PRS grade suffers. Pre-Lecture Assignments:Before each lecture you will go to the OWL site to learn what material you will need to know for the next class lecture or discussion section. Read the assigned material in the text and complete the Instructional units (IUs) before class. You will be asked a few questions by OWL to check your mastery of the new material. You may do a pre-lecture activity as many times as you like, until it expires (before the lecture) and you have full access to feedback and correct answers. The ability to improve your Pre-Lecture score stops 30 minutes before lecture begins, but you can still work with the Pre-Lectures for review and studying. Quizzes:Nine quizzes will be given over the Internet using OWL. Quizzes are based on completed Pre-Lecture IUs and material from prior lectures. A sample of questions is randomly chosen from a population of questions relevant to the chapter we are studying. Quiz scores based on percent of quiz IUs mastered, with a maximum of three attempts on each IU in a quiz before your highest score for that quiz will be recorded. Quizzes are not like pre-lectures and you will not have access to feedback during the time the quiz is up. Only after the quiz has expired can you see the feedback. These restrictions are meant to make quizzes more like exams in that they measure your knowledge and your readiness for actual exams. Once the quiz has expired you can revisit them with feedback turned on to practice for the exams, but you cannot change your quiz grade. Midterm Examinations:There will be two two-hour examinations in addition to the final. These two examinations will be given on Friday afternoons, starting at 3:30 p.m.. Exam 1 is Friday, October 3 and Exam 2 is Friday, November 7 . Mark your calendars! No make-up exams will be given for work or personal conflicts; hence you must be able to take these exams as scheduled. If you have a class that runs beyond 3:30 p.m. on Friday, please tell me and we can start you after that class ends. Please clear your calendars for these two Fridays. Last year's midterms are available on this web site. Final Examination:A comprehensive final exam will be given during the normal final examination period, but unfortunately we never know the exact date until later in the semester so don't book your holiday flights yet! The final exam is required of all students and will count either 20%, 30%, 40%, or 50% depending on how you weighted your exams, quizzes, and PRS sessions (see Summary of Grading below). Discussion Sections:The Friday discussion session will provide opportunity for review, instruction on computer use (e.g., Minitab and Excel), additional problems and questions on material covered in the pre-lectures and lectures. Your TA is your academic life-line for this course. Get to know your TA! Your TA will use PRS as well so you must bring it to each DS. We encourage your participation at discussion section, but if you have “mastered” your OWL assignments for the week, you are not required to attend the Friday Discussion Section that week, but you are always welcome to join us and it is the best place to meet your team mates for the Team Project. If you did not “master” the week’s OWL assignments, then you must attend your Discussion. Team Project [also see Team Projects]:You will be a member of a six person team comprised of classmates in the same DS as you. Your team will conduct statistical analysis on an issue your team chooses from a list of topics on this Web Site under Team Projects. Selection of topics is on a first come basis. Your team will deliver reports throughout the semester on the topic with a final presentation by December 12th. Teams may vote a member off their team under certain conditions. Attendance:Class attendance is expected and critical to success in this course. I think we can help you learn Statistics. If you choose to attend class, we insist that you be on time and refrain from visiting with your neighbors. Please do not enter the classroom from the front stage doors once class has started [if in doubt, go around to the back]. Use the rear doors and sit in the back rows. Disruptive behavior will not be tolerated or ignored. Students who do not attend class cannot expect individual tutoring from teaching assistants or the instructor. Also, if you miss class, it is your responsibility to find out about announcements made in class. My lecture notes are posted to our Web Site roughly 4 hours after the lecture is completed and they begin with all announcements and material used in class that day. 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 or discussion section to enter repsonses for your friend is cheating and will be treated as such. At each lecture, if the number of students attending the lecture is less 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. Summary of Grading Scheme:You may select variable exam weights from those given below, as long as all weights add to 100%. If you do not declare weights for each exam (or the weights you select fail to comply with the constraints) then the weights will be as given in the brackets. You select the weights at each exam and you can reassign weights throughout the semester. Course Weights and Flexible Exam Weight Selections:
Minimum Grade Guarantee:Grades are determined by student performance on the above items, not by negotiation based on other factors affecting our lives. There are no extra credit activities in this class. To allow you to check your grade-to-date, I will use the following minimum grade cutoff points based on a percentage of the total points available: A = 92, A- = 90, B+ = 86, B = 82 B- = 78, C+ = 74, C = 70, C- = 66, D+ = 62, D = 58 and F<58 Additional Comments:We will be covering a large body of unfamiliar material in a short period of time. The course is structured so that each new section builds on the concepts and ideas of the previous section. It is important, therefore, that you stay on top of lectures and reading assignments. Statistics is not a subject that you can cram for the night before an exam. The ability to use statistical concepts and methods is best developed through a steady and continuous exposure via lecture, readings, activities and problems—lots of problems. My best advice: Don't fall behind.
give you the wrong impression.
I'll do my best to prove it. |
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