Syllabus

STA 242/ENV 255:

APPLIED REGRESSION ANALYSIS

Course Info Link to Homepage http://cinfo.aas.duke.edu/courses/STA242.01-04-S2000

Instructor: Prof. Merlise Clyde

Office: 219A Old Chemistry Building
Phone: 681-8440
Email: clyde@stat.duke.edu
Office Hours: by appointment (email ahead)
Tuesday and Thursday 2:00-3:00 LSRC cafe area
Monday 3:00-5:00 Old Chemistry
Others TBA based on demand

Teaching Assistants:

Name
Email
Phone
Office Hours
Office Location
Merrill Liechty merrill@stat.duke.edu681-9390TBA 214d Old Chemistry
Kiona Ogle kiona.ogle@duke.edu NA by appointment
(email to arrange)		BioScience Room 352

Course Calendar

Weekly/Daily schedule with reading assignments, labs, homework, and exams. This link will be updated as the course progresses.

Labs:

There are four labs for this course, given at the following times: Labs are scheduled to meet in North Building 130. Because lab space is limited, if you wish to attend a different lab section for any reason, you should first check with the lab instructors to ensure that there is space.

Course Resources:

ACPUB Course Info

Go to
http://cinfo.aas.duke.edu/courses/STA242.01-04-S2000
For access to handouts, assignments, online discussion, class email, current grades, and more!

TEXT (required)

cover

Fred L. Ramsey and Daniel W. Schafer
The Statistical Sleuth

Datasets from The Statistical Sleuth


SOFTWARE

Splus

S-Plus 4.5 for Windows, Student Edition
by Math Soft, Inc. ©1999
ISBN: 0-534-35873-X

S-PLUS Manuals
Splus Guide to Statistics (These are available online through the S-PLUS HELP System
Splus Programming Guide Please do not print out!)




We will cover material in Chapters 7-12, and 18-22 of The Statistical Sleuth. Other topics will be covered if there is sufficient time and interest. Daily topics and reading assignments will be posted in the Course Calendar which is available from the course homepage. This will be updated throughout the course as necessary.

We will be using S-Plus for statistical computing in this course. S-Plus is a powerful, flexible program and has the advantage over SAS and other programs of being easy to customize and provides excellent graphics. You can also save/edit your programs, which can be useful for research projects. Statistics packages, such as S-Plus and SAS, take some time to get use to, so hang in there! It may take a few weeks before you start to feel comfortable. The Student version of Splus is available for this course. I would recommend that you purchase the program (click on the link above for S-PLUS 4.5) if you have your own PC (~$80). For those without computers, the PC clusters on campus do have S-Plus on them. (note: there is a PC lab with Splus in the basement of Old Chem). You may also use the UNIX version of S-Plus, if you prefer.

You will receive instruction on S-Plus during the lab meetings, go over assignments and occasionally receive instruction to supplement the lectures. Time will usually be scheduled for individual help. You should prepare for lab before hand by reading through the assignment on the web and any reading in the text or S-Plus online manual. You may use another computer program, but be aware that it may not provide all of the necessary features and we may not be able to provide help :-). Warning: You may have to spend additional time outside of lab in order to complete some assignments.


Prerequisites

The course prerequisite is STA110, STA210 or equivalent. If you feel you need to review material, I would suggest reading Chapters 1-3, 5-6 of The Statistical Sleuth. Another suggested reference for review is Statistics for the Life Sciences by Myra Samuels. Please see me or any of the TA's if you have review questions. You should be familiar with basic statistical concepts such as means, standard deviations, histograms, boxplots, the normal and Student t distribution, and p-values. You should also feel comfortable using log() and exp() transformations. No prior experience with S-Plus is expected; this will be covered in class and in the lab portion of the course.

Grading

There will be two exams plus a final group project. The tentative dates are posted in the Course Calendar Please check your schedules now for possible conflicts.

Although the exact percentages may be adjusted based on the difficulty of the homework and exams, as a guide based on past classes you can expect that about 90% and above will be required for an "E", 89-75% will be required for a "G". Grades of "I" will be given only in extraordinary circumstances. An incomplete will not be given on the grounds of an unexpectedly heavy course load.

Homework is a required part of the course. There will be approximately 12 weekly assignments during the semester. All assignments will require computer work. Late homework will not be accepted. Assignments and due dates are posted on the web. You are permitted and encouraged to discuss homework problems with others in the class, but the work turned in must be your own. Conscientious completion of all homework assignments is essential to getting a good grade in this course

You will also need a hand calculator that can find roots, logs and exponentials. Bring your calculator to the exams!