Find us on the Web
http://math.sunyit.edu/math/sta100

Class Meetings
We meet in DONOVAN G244 at 6PM on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The Physics computer lab in Donovan Hall 2107 is available for SPSS and Excel, as are these computer labs in Donovan Hall: 1159, 1146, 1149, 1157, G225, G161, G225.

Office Hours
Formal office hours will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays 2PM-4PM. Other times by appointment- don't be shy!

Prerequisites
High school mathematics, i.e. algebra and graphing. A facility with summation notation is helpful, as is some exposure to basic concepts of probability.

Course Description
Study of the methods whereby data are collected, analyzed, and presented. Topics include: frequency distributions, measures of location, dispersion, and skewness, probability and probability distributions, and various topics in statistical inference.

Required Text
Understandable Statistics, 9th edition,
by Charles Henry Brase and Corrinne Pellillo Brase
Houghton Mifflin Company

Texts for further reading

• Statistics, 2nd Edition by by Freedman, Pisani, and Purves, W.W. Norton and Co. (1991). (Available in the Learning Center and the Library)
• How to Think About Statistics, by J. Phillips, W.H. Freeman and Co. (1992). (I have a copy).
• SPSS 12.0 for Windows Student Version, Prentice Hall (2005). (ISBN) 0-13-147027-2
• SPSS 12.0 Guide to Data Analysis, by Marija J. Norusis, Prentice Hall (2004). (ISBN) 0-13-147886-9

Attendance, Etc.
Your presence in class is needed on a daily basis. The material presented in this course continually builds upon past lectures. Please don't fall behind!

Little habits can make a profound difference in your success. "Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery."

Therefore I strongly reccomend:

• reading the textbook coverage before class presentation and
• doing all the homework assignments in a serious way. Also,
• get to class a little early so that you are focused and have time to review the class notes from the previous session before the lecture begins.

Note: Please check the Snow Line at 792-7385 or www.sunyit.edu at Quick Links: Cancelled Classes during inclement weather.

Course Outline

• SPSS and Excel
• Representing data
  • scatterplots
  • frequency distributions and histograms
  • stem and leaf plots
• Summation Notation and Manipulations
• Measures of central tendency and variation
  • mean, median, and mode for population and sample
  • standard deviation and variance for population and sample
  • descriptions of grouped data
  • Percentiles and Box-and-Whisker Plots
  • Chebyshev's Theorem
• Basic Probability and Random Variables
  • counting arguments, permutations and combinations
  • basic set theory and sample spaces
  • postulates and rules
  • conditional probability
• Expectations
• Probability distributions
  • Expectation and variance of a probability distribution
  • The binomial distribution
  • The hypergeometric distribution
  • The Poisson distribution
  • The normal distribution
  • The Student's T distribution
  • The Chi Square distribution
• Sampling distributions
  • Central Limit Theorem
  • Sampling Distributions for Proportions
• Inferential Statistics
  • Confidence intervals for the mean, proportion and standard deviation
  • Tests of hypotheses concerning the mean of a population, the difference between two means, standard deviations, and proportions
• Goodness of Fit and Chi Square tests
• Regression and Correlation

Methods of Evaluation
There will be two exams, a final, 10 homework assignments, and a project.

• The first exam will be on Thursday February 26 (Lecture 12).
• The second exam will be on Thursday April 9th (Lecture 24).

The final exam will take place sometime during the week of May 4th.

There will also be homework assignments (somewhat fewer than one per week). The breakdown for your grade is as follows:

• 25% for each exam
• 25% for final
• 15% for homework, attendance, and Excel
• 10% for project.

Homework must be done in a professional manner. This means that it should be neat, organized, complete, and on time. Each assignment must have a cover sheet indicating

• Your name
• The course, STA 100
• The assignment number
• The due date
• The assigned problems

As a reference, follow the link below to The Greek Alphabet.