STATISTICS 10D Syllabus

Duke University, Spring 1999

 

Instructor:          Ross Ulmer

                             Office Hours: Wednesday 4 –5 p.m. or by appointment, in Room 210a, Old Chemistry

                             E-mail: rulmer@acpub.duke.edu

 

Recitations:         

 

Teaching Assistant

Time

Room

Bldg.

1

Elise Weaver

Friday, 10:30 – 11:20

130

North Bldg.

2

Elise Weaver

Friday, 11:50 - 12:40

130

North Bldg.

 

Texts:          Introduction to the Practice of Satistics by Freedman, Pisani, and Purves (required)

                    Interpreting Basic Statistics,Holcomb (required)

                   JMP Start Statistics, Sall and Lehman (optional)

 

Teaching Assistant:  Elise Weaver

 

Grading:   10% Homework, 20% Data Analysis Project, 20% Exam 1, 20% Exam 2, 30% Final Exam

 

The final is cumulative, and will be held on Tuesday, May 4, 2 – 5 p.m. Note: the final will not be offered at alternative times, so make plans accordingly!  Students scoring higher than 90% of all possible points are assured an A, 80-89% B, 70-79% C, 60-69% D, and 59% or below will not pass the course.  Class and section attendance and other forms of visible effort will be considered for borderline cases.  

 

Homework:  Homework assignments and answers will be posted on the WWW.  Homework will not be graded on a problem-by-problem basis. Instead, if all problems are worked, you will get full credit (100%) for the assignment.  If the homework is incomplete but at least one-half of the problems are worked, you will get 1/2 credit (50%) for the assignment. Late homework will not get more than 1/2 credit, since the answers will be posted on the newsgroup or the WWW page soon after the homework is due.  Your lowest Homework grade will be dropped.

 

Project:  The project will give you the opportunity to apply concepts learned in this class to a real life data set of your own choosing.  Details of the project are described in a separate handout.  You will need to use the JMP-In statistical analysis computer program to analyze your data. Students may work individually or in groups up to size four.

 

Statistical Analysis Using JMP-IN: We will use the JMP-In statistical package in this course, designed by SAS Institute.   SAS is one of the more powerful statistical program packages, and is used extensively in research and business settings around the world.  JMP-In is a relatively user-friendly menu-driven program that relieves students of having do explicit SAS programming.  You will be responsible for developing a working familiarity with JMP-In.  If you have a personal computer, I highly recommend you buy the software and install it on your computer.  If not, JMP-In is available in computer clusters across campus

 

Electronic Communication: 

WWW Page:  There will soon be a web page for this course.  If you use Netscape or Internet Explorer you will be able to find it at:  http://www.stat.duke.edu/courses/spring99/sta10d/          The web page will include course information, syllabus, TA information, homework assignments, etc.  Answers to homework and exams will also be posted there as the class progresses.

Class Newsgroup:  We will also provide a class newsgroup (duke.courses.sta10d).  You will be able to post and read class messages on this newsgroup.  The TA and I will check the newsgroup frequently and respond to any questions posted.  This newsgroup, and the www page, will be good places to check for any late-breaking information.

E-mail:  If you have questions for the TA, or me, I encourage you to post them to the newsgroup since other students may have the same question.  However, if you prefer, you may e-mail us directly.