STAT 220: Basic Statistics for Quantitative Students

General description of the course: This course offers a mathematically-oriented introduction to statistics. Although it uses the same textbook as STAT 200, this textbook will be supplemented with additional material, some of which requires calculus. The goals of this course are

1. to provide a more mathematically rigorous introduction to statistics than is found in any other 200-level course;
2. to prepare students to take additional statistics courses at the 400 level.

Textbook: Mind on Statistics, 2nd edition, by Jessica Utts and Bob Heckard, published by Duxbury Press. We will cover most of this book.

Schedule: MWF 9:05-9:55 in 122 Thomas

Website: www.stat.psu.edu/~dhunter/220

Instructor: David Hunter <dhunter@stat.psu.edu>, 310 Thomas Building, 863-0979
Office hours: Mondays 1:30-2:30, Wednesdays 3:00-4:00

Teaching Assistant: Muhammad Atiyat <mxa934@psu.edu>, 301 Thomas Building, 863-2314
Office hours: TBA

Required Work: The final numerical grade in this course will be comprised of:
  1. Homework assignments (40%); this will very likely include a final project.
  2. Readiness Assessment Quizzes, or RAQs (10%)
  3. Midterm exam (20%)
  4. Cumulative final exam (30%)

Final Letter Grades: The instructor will assign cutoffs for letter grades after the semester is finished. The general guidelines will be the usual standards (90 for A, 80 for B, etc.), but the instructor reserves the right to deviate slightly from these standards based on the difficulty of the course and "clumping" of students' scores. The final cutoffs will be posted at the end of the course.

Computing: There will be a significant computing component to this course. We will primarily be using the freely available software package called R. If you have a computer, you should download R yourself from www.r-project.org.

Exams: There will be two exams, an in-class midterm and a comprehensive final exam that will take place during the final exam period scheduled by the registrar. Together, these two exams will comprise half of your overall numerical grade.

Homework: There may be several different types of homework in this class. We might have homework assignments consisting of problems from the textbook, from the R Companion guide that accompanies the course, or from the instructor. Because this course is being retooled this semester after several years not being offered, the types and amounts of homework that are assigned will probably change during the course of the semester. However, assignments will always be posted on the assignments webpage at least two class meetings before they are due, as summarized in the following table:

Assigments due by...	will always be posted by the end of class on the previous...
Monday	Wednesday
Wednesday	Friday
Friday	Monday

It is quite likely that part of your homework grade will consist of a final project, to be completed shortly before the end of the semester. There will of course be more details about such an assignment as it draws closer. This final project, if it happens, will comprise no more than 15% of your final numerical grade in the course.

Readiness Assessment Quizzes (RAQs) Every one to two weeks, you will have a reading assignment that will be followed by a short in-class quiz called a Readiness Assessment Quiz. The purpose of these quizzes will be to strongly encourage you to do your assigned reading so that you will be ready to get the most out of ensuing lectures or classroom activities on related topics. These RAQs will cover very specific topics that will be outlined in advance on the RAQ web site. Like homeworks, RAQs will be announced no later than two classes before they are to occur (in other words, the above table applies to RAQs as well as homeworks).

Course Rules:

1. You are expected to attend class. However, there are sometimes good reasons to miss class (the 9:00am start time is not among these!). If you must miss a class, please be sure to inform the instructor by email prior to doing so. No makeups of any kind will be allowed for unexcused absences except in unusual circumstances (the instructor will be the sole judge of what constitutes "unusual"!).
2. If you need to leave class early, please sit in the rear and leave as quietly as possible.
3. Please be courteous to your classmates and keep extra noise to a minimum.
4. Please turn off all cell phones and pagers during class.
5. Academic Integrity Statement: All Penn State and Eberly College of Science policies regarding academic integrity apply to this course. See http://www.science.psu.edu/academic/Integrity/index.html for details.