STATISITCS 500: Applied Statistics, Spring 2005

STATISTICS 897: Introduction to Applied Statistics (3 pages)

Instructor: Dr. Andrew (Andy) Wiesner Office: 308 Thomas Email: Use ANGEL email system Phone: 814-863-5653 (email is better and faster)

Email: Use ANGEL email system under Communicate tab. Emails received outside of ANGEL may go unanswered! NOTE: If you have your ANGEL email forwarded to another internet account then hitting reply to that email will NOT reply through ANGEL but instead in webmail.

Objective: This course is designed as an introduction into applied statistics at the graduate level. This course introduces the student to the basic tools of applied statistics. It covers basic probability distributions, and methods for assessing the meaning of data collected from experiments or observational studies, encountered widely in many educational settings.

Office Hours: I routinely check my ANGEL email several times during the day (typically first thing in the morning and in the evening) and will respond promptly. On weekends, I may check only once per day.

Textbook: You may purchase course materials from MBS Direct (the bookstore used by Penn State's World Campus). For pricing and ordering information, please see the MBS Direct Web site, located at http://direct.mbsbooks.com/psude.htm. MBS Direct can also be contacted at 1- 800-325-3252. Materials will be available at MBS Direct approximately three weeks before the course begins. Alternatively, you may seek these texts from other favorite bookstores. (Note: Be sure you purchase the edition/publication date listed below.) The following text is required:

 Agresti, A. and Franklin, C. (2007). Statistics: The Art and Science of Learning From Data.. 2nd ed. Prentice Hall, New York. This textbook is bundled with Student Version 15 of the Minitab software if the book is purchased through the MBS Direct bookstore.

Software: We will be using the statistical software called Minitab. If you purchased the book through the MBS bookstore then a student version was bundled with the text. If not, then you will need to acquire a copy (if you do not already have one). Version 15 is now available, but if you have Version 14 that should suffice. Any versions below 14 will need replaced. Some purchasing resources are the PSU Computer Store or through Minitab at http://www.minitab.com At this time Minitab is NOT support by MAC. If you are using a MAC or prefer to use SPSS, it will be supported in this course. Students wishing to use SAS, R, JUMP, etc. will not have support available through the course.

Lesson Notes: Notes will be available in the Lessons folder in ANGEL (https://cms.psu.edu).

Assignments and Grading: Exams (2) – 25% each 50% Mini-Project 20% Lab Activity (best 11 of 12) – Requires Minitab/SPSS 20% 1 per lesson Lesson Quizzes (best 11 of 12) – May require Minitab/SPSS 10% 1 per lesson

1 Practice Homework (12) 0% 1 per lesson

Activities (20% of final grade) – The semester will consist of twelve (12) activities. The assigned activity can be found on ANGEL in the Lab Activity folder under each lesson. o Each lesson will include a Lab Activity o All Lab Activities will be available in ANGEL as a word document. You will complete the activity by typing your responses on the document, saving it, and submitting your solutions to the activity’s respective drop box also located in the Lab Activity folder. o There is no time restriction other than the due date. o Minitab.SPSS will be necessary! o Submit only COMPLETED activities. Multiple submissions may result in a zero for that activity. o Upon submission the solutions will be available in the respective Lab Activity folder. o The grading of activities will be done using a “0% or 100 % method. If all problems are attempted and all work is shown the student will receive a 100, even if your final answer is incorrect. Otherwise, the activity will receive a 0.

Lesson Quizzes (10% of final grade) – The semester will consist of twelve (12) lesson quizzes. The assigned quiz can be found on ANGEL in the lesson folder for each lesson. o Each lesson will include a Lesson Quiz o All Lesson Quizzes will be available in ANGEL. o There is no time restriction other than the due date. o Minitab.SPSS will be necessary on some but not all quizzes! o Upon submission the solutions will be available o The quizzes will cover content discussed in that week’s lesson.

Practice Homework (0% of final grade) – – Instead of homework these problems are going to be considered practice. The solutions are available and you are welcome to ask questions regarding any of these problems. The point of this is to provide an opportunity for students to have problems to use as practice to help bolster your understanding of the material. For example, one may use these problems to aid in their understanding of a concept in which they are struggling to grasp. You will not be asked to submit any solutions; these are strictly there for you to use at your own discretion.

Exams (50%): Two (2) exams will be given during the semester. Although each exam will reflect material most recently covered, the material is cumulative in nature. The exams will be available through ANGEL. The exams will be completely off-line and you will have one weekend to complete the exams and submit your completed exam to the exam drop box.

Mini Project (20%): At semester’s end you will be required to submit a written mini project to demonstrate your understanding of the application of the material learned in class. The mini project will require you to find a peer reviewed scholarly journal article that has been accepted for publication (please note that book chapters, web articles and ERIC articles that have not been peer reviewed are NOT acceptable). Your article will need to contain one of the statistical techniques covered in that portion of the course (for example, can evaluate an article that used linear regression covered in our lessons 11 and 12). You will need to answer a template

2 of questions about the article and the use of the statistical techniques. This project can be completed in bullet form but they MUST be grammatically correct, use correct spelling, typed, and written with complete sentences. **Please plan ahead, locating articles with the appropriate statistical techniques can be time consuming!

Late Assignments and missed exams: Since solutions will be available no late assignments will be accepted. No make-up exams will be allowed.

Exam Schedule: Exam I: Available Friday, September 30th and due midnight October 2nd. Exam II: Available Friday, December 9th and due midnight December 11th

Grading Scale (subject to change): The final letter grading will follow the standard University guidelines and are as follows: F D C C+ B- B B+ A- A 0 60 70 77 80 83 87 90 93

Collaboration: You are expected to complete all assignments on your own. You are strongly advised to consult the Penn State Academic Integrity Policy at: http://www.science.psu.edu/academic/Integrity/index.html