Stat 200 Basic Applied Statistics

Spring 2014, Mon.Wed.Fri. 10:00 (CRN 10877) or 11:00 (CRN 10878) or 12:00 (CRN 10902) CL 232, 4 credits
Department of Statistics
University of Pittsburgh

Instructor Dr. Nancy Pfenning
Office Cathedral 2710
Website www.pitt.edu/~nancyp/stat-0200/index.html
E-mail nancypfenning@gmail.com
Phone 412-521-8349 (home, if urgent, before 10pm)
  412-624-8336 (during office hours)
Office Hrs Thurs. 10:00-1:00 in CL 2710 or by appt.
Stat Lab For hours of operation and names of TAs on staff, see schedule but avoid times when it's been reserved (scroll down to their calendar). Lab will be CL 435 (take stairs up from Bigelow side of Cathedral) at the start of the semester, and will transition at some point to the first floor of Posvar Hall, room 1200 or 1201. Keep alert for updates via email, in-class announcements, or this website.
Tutors Contact the Academic Resource Center 648-7920 for free tutoring by undergrads or visit their website

News

  • Practice Final and Solutions
  • Practice Midterm 2 and Solutions to Practice Midterm 2
  • Practice Midterm 1 and Solutions to Practice Midterm 1
  • Powerpoint Lecture Slides
  • Practice Quizzes and Solutions
  • Blank Homework Forms (to be printed if you didn't pick one up in class)
  • Recitations on the following dates will be held in the Stat Lab CL 435 or 1200/1201 Posvar: Jan. 7-10, Feb.18-21, Apr.8-11, Apr.15-18.
  • Student Survey data: Fall2012StudentSurveyData.txt a tab-delimited text file, is now available. To download it into MINITAB, type ctrl A to highlight, ctrl C to copy, start up MINITAB, type ctrl V to paste it. If it asks about delimiters, click OK.
  • Here is a brief guide to MINITAB 16 Basics , used in this course.
  • MINITAB is available on the PCs at all campus computing labs, such as Cathedral, Forbes Quad, Benedum, and of course the Stat Lab. If in addition you would like to have MINITAB on your PC, Pitt's Software Download Service offers MINITAB for free. Alternatively, a free fully functional demo can be downloaded from Minitab but it will only run for 30 days, so consider waiting until later in the semester!

    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.

    Textbook/Calculator

    Pfenning Elementary Statistics: Looking at the Big Picture (c)2011 Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning, STUDENT edition. If you'd like to consult other statistics books for reference, ask me in office hours. A calculator (any kind) is needed.

    Requirements

    Homework,computer lab problems, quizzes, two midterms, and a comprehensive final exam.

    Grading

    11 Homeworks 350
    12 Lab Problems 50
    Best 10 of 11 Quizzes 100
    Midterm 1 150
    Midterm 2 150
    Final Exam [see calendar for dates] 250
    Total 1050
    Course % Total divided by 10

    Course Grade

    90-105% A; 80-89% B; etc. Plusses are assigned to the students at the top of each grade range and minuses to the students at the bottom. None of us can know in advance if an individual student will be a "borderline case"; completing all the assignments throughout the semester can help you to optimize your chances for the best possible grade; no late homeworks will be accepted.

    Recitations: *Students from all lectures can use any TA's office hours. Check this website for updates of times and locations.*

    10:00 Lecture Liz Yates; email eay15@pitt.edu Office Hrs* Thursdays 1:00-3:00 in WWPH 2422
    • Tuesday, 9:00-9:50 CL 218 [CRN 10892]
    • Tuesday, 10:00-10:50 CL 218 [CRN 10893]
    • Tuesday, 11:00-11:50 CL 218 [CRN 10894]
    • Tuesday, 2:00-2:50 IS 406 [CRN 10891]
    11:00 Lecture Lulu Liu email lul24@pitt.edu Office Hrs* Fridays 9:00-11:00 in WWPH 4519
    • Wednesday, 12:00-12:50 CL 218 [CRN 10895]
    • Wednesday, 1:00-1:50 CL 218 [CRN 10896]
    • Wednesday, 2:00-2:50 CL 218 [CRN 10897]
    • Thursday, 9:00-9:50 CL 237 [CRN 11032]
    12:00 Lecture Thurs 4:00 recitation Yafei Wei: email yaw24@pitt.edu Office Hrs* Wednesdays 10:00-12:00 in CL 2617;
    Friday recitations Cory Holbein: email coh25@pitt.edu Office Hrs* Thursdays 3:00-5:00 in CL 2712
    • Thursday, 4:00-4:50 LANG A202 [CRN 10903]
    • Friday, 9:00-9:50 CL 236 [CRN 10904]
    • Friday, 10:00-10:50 CL 236 [CRN 11207]
    • Friday, 11:00-11:50 CL 236 [CRN 10905]

    Recitations will concentrate on the use of MINITAB (our computer package) and on the clarification and review of lecture material. All quizzes except Quiz 10 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.

    Note to Students with Disabilities: If you have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, you are encouraged to contact both your instructor and Disability Resources and Services, 216 WPU (412) 648-7890, as early as possible in the term. DRS will verify your disability and determine reasonable accommodations for this course. See their website www.drs.pitt.edu


    [ Home | Calendar ]