Statistics

Spring 2008
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assignments

Assignments with a positive whole number will be formally graded; the others will not.

Assignment 0, due 2008-01-29 Read the following articles:

Reading Assignment 0.5, due 2008-01-31 Read the "To The Student" section and Chapter 1 of BPS.

  due Tue Feb 5

Assignment 1

Play with the college energy data. You can find it in Excel format by following the "restricted" link on the left (you'll need to be logged in). I'm not looking for all possible graphs of all of the data (though I probably want more than one). Concentrate on demonstrating the following skills:
In particular, I'm much more interested in comparing various data sets in sensible ways---different years within a building; different buildings within a year; different fuels within a building; etc.

Reading Assignment 1.5, due 2008-02-07 Read Chapters 2 to 5 (inclusive) of BPS. Here are a few suggested practice exercises. (Don't feel you have to do all of these, and I also encourage you to try others not on the list. In particular, the "Check Your Skills" section at the end of each chapter is a useful exercise. One of the skills you should work on developing in this course is the ability to master mathematical material from a book. It won't come instantly, but one vital part of any successful strategy is doing the math you are reading about.)

Reading Assignment 1.6, due 2008-02-12 Read Chapters 6 and 7. Suggested practice exercises:

  due Fri Feb 15

Assignment 2

From BPS: 2.34, 3.44, 4.40, 5.28, 5.40, 6.30, and one question of your choice from the supplementary exercises 7.36--7.46.

Reading Assignment 2.5, due 2008-02-19 Read Chapters 10, 12, and 11 of BPS. (Yes, that is the recommended order.)

  due Fri Feb 22

Assignment 3

From BPS: 10.40, 10.46, 11.32, 11.34, 12.30, 12.36, 12.52. Poker challenge: Calculate the probabilities of various poker hands.

  due Thu Mar 6

Quiz 1

Covering Chapters 1--13. Expect half an hour of problems of a similar standard to those below. Closed book (calculators and access to a normal table allowed).
Practice Problems: 2.13--2.16, 2.22, 3.16--3.18, 4.13, 4.18, 5.17, 5.19, 5.20, 5.21, 6.9--6.18, 10.21--10.26, 11.20, 11.21, 11.24, 12.17, 12.18, 12.24.

  due Fri Mar 7

Assignment 4

Do some fun stuff with data on smoking and/or ethnicity. Graph it, summarise it, are you happy with it (either from a how-it-was collected standpoint, or a how-much-there-is, standpoint, or...), guess whether differences are significant or random, bring further info in. In particular, does the college student population mirror the ethnicity profile you'd expect given where we draw students from? Other potential questions: Is the proportion of smokers at Marlboro typical? And typical of what?, and many many more that you can come up with.

Reading Assignment 4.5 Due Thursday April 3rd.
Read Chapters 14--19 (We talked through the material up to Chapter 18 before Spring Break).

  due Fri Apr 4

Assignment 5

From BPS: 14.26, 14.30, 15.36, 15.40, 16.38

Reading (and Thinking) Assignment 5.5 Due Tuesday April 8th.
Read some of Ben Goldacre's badscience articles about stats.. Particularly recommended: I Felt The P-Values In My Soul, Losing The Lottery, Reefer Badness, and the Prosecutor's Phallusy.
And, think about what you want to do for your final project.

  due Sat Apr 12

Assignment 6


  due Thu Apr 17

Quiz 2

 

Final Exam

24 hours, open book. We'll talk about timing and details in class.
 

Final Project

Again, details given in class.
 

Final Grade

This heading is only here so that it creates a slot on the grading grid for me to put your final grade into. -Matt
http://cs.marlboro.edu/ courses/ spring2008/statistics/ special/assignments
last modified Wednesday January 28 2009 8:11 am EST