STA 110A
Statistics and Data Analysis in the Social Sciences
Syllabus
Duke University
Fall 1998
MWF 9:10-10:00
136 Social Sciences Building
|
Instructor:
| Michael Lavine
|
|---|
| Office: 218 Old Chemistry Building |
| Phone: 684-2152 |
| Email: michael@stat.duke.edu |
Office Hours: by appointment or drop in
Recitations:
|
Section
|
Teaching Asst
|
Time
|
Room/Bldg
|
|---|
| 1 | YoungOn Choi | Th 5:25-6:15 | Soc.-Psych. 129 |
| 2 | Li Gu | Th 9:10-10:00 | Gross Chem. 110 |
| 3 | YoungOn Choi | F 8:00-8:50 | Soc.-Psych. 129 |
| 4 | Li Gu | F 1:10-2:00 | Bio. Sci. 113 |
Texts:
- Statistics, 3rd ed. by Freedman, Pisani and Purvis
(required) (2nd edition is OK, but you may need occasional access to 3rd.)
- Mathematical Methods in Statistics by Freedman and Lane (required)
Newsgroup: There is a course newsgroup duke.courses.sta110a.
The newsgroup is for me to post information for you and for you to post
questions, answers and opinions to each other. There are two ways to read
the newsgroup. You can click here to
read news. Or you can follow the
OIT directions
for reading news the usual way.
Teaching Assistants:
|
Name
|
Email
|
Phone
|
Office Hours
|
Office Location
|
|---|
| Young On Choi | yoc@duke.edu | 660-5690 | 10-12, Friday | Soc-Psych 122L |
| Li Gu | lg4@duke.edu | 383-3642 |
5:30-7:30, Wednesday | Old Chem 025 |
Homework:
Homework problems from the book will not
be assigned but it is expected that students will work as many
of the problems in the book as may be required to guarantee mastery
of the material. Solutions to selected exercises in Statistics
appear at the end of the text.
Grading:
Grades will be based on quizzes, a final exam and
class participation. The three parts are not additive. In particular,
to demonstrate exceptional performance and earn an A, you must
do well on both the quizzes and the final exam.
Quizzes:
Quizzes are designed to ensure that:
- the text and supplemental readings have been read and digested and
- problems from the text have been mastered.
Quizzes will be closed book. Questions will similar to excerises
in the texts. The honor
system applies to all work. Quizzes will be given during
class time on Wednesdays.
Missed quizzes: The point of the quizzes is to make sure you keep up with
the material and understand it. If you miss one or two quizzes, spread
throughout the semester, I can still tell whether you are keeping up.
If you miss the last two quizzes, then I can't tell. Likewise, if you get
a zero on one quiz, I will attribute it to a bad day. So, I will drop your
two lowest quiz scores, but not two out of the last three quizzes.
Final Exam:
The final exam will be open book and will test material from
the entire semester.
Recitations:
Recitation time will be devoted mainly to Freedman and Lane.
Topics:
Statistics is excellent. It avoids all mathematical
notation in an effort to force students to understand the ideas of
statistics, rather than plug numbers automatically into formulae.
The supplement by Freedman and Lane elaborates on the text by supplying
greater mathematical formality. The course will cover virtually all the
material in both books, so the pace will be swift from the
beginning.
Your feedback:
I hope; you will feel free to talk to me anytime about the class,
either with questions about the material or with comments about the text
or the way the course is conducted. If you prefer, you may
send your
comments by anonymous email by following this link.
Advice:
I will expect
students to attend and participate in all lectures and recitations
and to read and understand the book, work text problems, and take
homeworks and quizzes seriously. I cannot overemphasize
the importance of both reading and practicing over the course
of the entire semester! Start reading and working problems from day 1.
The book is written well enough so that you can read it on your own.
You will be expected to know the material even if we don't cover it in class.
Note:
Some people suffer from "math anxiety." A common
symptom of this is paralysis when faced with a math problem, and
a reluctance to put anything down on paper lest it be wrong. The
solution to this is practice, and resolution in making mistakes.
Write down all the solutions you can think of, then examine them
to find the errors. Waste lots of paper!
Some people find themselves studying for a long time without making
progress. This can be counterproductive. If this sounds like you
then either set a time limit for yourself or study until you feel
that additional time will not
be productive. Then stop. I repeat: just stop. Don't feel bad
about it. I have the same experience. I can only work at a problem
for so long before I have to stop.
Come back to the problem later. If you still can't make progress,
come see me or one of the TA's, or post a message to the newsgroup.
Perhaps we can say the right thing to get you going again.