Basic Applied Statistics
STAT 200

Fall 2002, CRN 14217, 4 credits
Department of Statistics
University of Pittsburgh

Time/Place MWF 11:00-11:50, WWPH 1P56
Instructor Dr. Nancy Pfenning
Office Cathedral 2710
Website www.pitt.edu/~nancyp
E-mail nancyp+@pitt.edu
Phone 624-8729 (statistics office, leave message with Diane)
  521-8349 (home, if urgent, before 10pm)
  624-8336 (during office hours)
Office Hrs. Mon 9:30-10:30, Wed&Fri 9:00-10:30 or by appt.
Stat Lab 435 Cathedral, for schedule see Stat Lab Hours
  (take stairs up from Bigelow side of Cathedral)
Free Tutoring the Academic Support Center 648-7920 or visit their website

News

  • 12/10/02 Final Exam scores averaged 84%, with a standard deviation of 16%; course average was 83.5%, with a standard deviation of 15%.
  • Angela will see students on Monday, December 9th from 12:00 to 2:00 in Cathedral 2628.
  • 11/22/02 Practice Final handed out in class; here are the solutions
  • Dr. Pfenning will hold extra office hours Monday, December 9th from 8:30 to 11:30 and Tuesday, December 10th from 8:30 to 9:30.
  • 11/08/02 Midterm 2 scores had mean 78%, standard deviation 15%; see solutions
  • Dr. Pfenning will have extra office hours Thursday 11/7 from 10:00 to 10:15. No hours in office Friday 11/8, but I'll be outside WWPH 1P56 (our classroom) before class, from 10:00 to 10:50.
  • 11/1/02 Practice Midterm 2 handed out in class; see solutions .
  • 10/29/02 Table C available for viewing in HTML.
  • 10/10/02 Table A available for viewing in HTML.
  • 10/4/02 Midterm 1 scores had mean 85%, standard deviation 13%; solutions provided here.
  • Dr. Pfenning will hold extra office hours Thursday, Oct. 3 from 9:00 to 11:00 if you'd like some help preparing for the midterm.
  • 9/26/02 Practice Midterm 1 handed out in class; see solutions .
  • 9/11/02 Normal Practice Exercises Solutions now available
  • Survey data from current year now available: surveyf02.txt, a tab-delimited text file; see instructions.
  • 8/26/02 Anonymous Survey Questions completed by class
  • 8/26/02 If you would like to have MINITAB on your PC, a fully functional demo can be downloaded from www.minitab.com BUT it will only run for 30 days, so consider waiting until later in the semester!
  • All recitations on the following dates: August 26/27, September 3, October 7/8, November 11/12, November 25/26 will be held in the Stat Lab 435 CL (enter on Bigelow side of Cathedral, take steps up to 4th floor. Otherwise recitations will meet in the assigned classroom (CL 219 or 204)
  • No classes Monday, September 2 for Labor Day; those of you who have the Monday recitation should attend the MINITAB session for the second half of one of the other 3 recitations Tuesday, September 3 in the Stat Lab (CL 435) at 12:25, 1:25, or 2:25
  • 8/26/02 and 8/27/02 Handout in recitation on MINITAB Basics to be used as a reference for all MINITAB work.

Description

This is a course for students who wish to learn basic methods in order to analyze simple studies and experiments. This course will present the basic methods of applied statistics, utilizing an easy-to-use interactive statistical computing package called MINITAB. Students will be provided with readily understandable and intuitive descriptions of statistical analyses. The topics to be covered include: basic descriptive statistics for univariate and bivariate data, very elementary probability theory, random samplings from populations and random allocation to experimental treatments, sampling distributions, concepts of confidence intervals and hypothesis testing, tests of means in one-sample, two-sample, paired-sample and standard analysis of variance contexts. Categorical data analysis will also be discussed. Most students taking this course will probably not pursue further formal undergraduate study in applied statistics.

Prerequisites

MATH 0031 (Algebra) or equivalent. No Comp. Sci. background needed.

Requirements

Homework (including computer assignments), quizzes, two midterms, and a comprehensive final exam.

Grading

11 Homeworks+12 Lab Problems (>) 200
10 Quizzes 100
2 Midterms, 200 each 400
Final Exam 300
Total 1000

Course Grade

90-100% A; 80-89% B; etc. Plusses and minuses are used for borderline cases and to ensure fairness and consistency.

Textbook

D. S. Moore: Basic Practice of Statistics, 2nd ed., W. H. Freeman and Company

Lecture Notes

Handed out weekly in class; also available for copying in Math/Stats library 4th floor Thackeray

Recitations

  • Monday, 3:00-3:50 CL 219 [CRN 14239]
  • Tuesday, 12:00-12:50 CL 204 [CRN 14221]
  • Tuesday, 1:00-1:50 CL 204 [CRN 14226]
  • Tuesday, 2:00-2:50 CL 204 [CRN 14234]
  • Instructor: Angela Lockhard aklst6@pitt.edu
  • Office Hours: 4211 Sennott Thursdays 11:00-2:00 starting Sept.12

Recitations will concentrate on the use of MINITAB (our computer package) and on the clarification and review of lecture material. Quizzes will be administered in recitation. In addition, individual questions, especially those pertaining to the homework assignments, may be addressed.

Note: The material in this course is cumulative in nature. Thus, it is important not to fall behind in your reading or assignments or you will find yourself lost. If you are confused, see me or your recitation instructor for help.


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