STAT 250H Introduction to Biostatistics

First exam on Friday, Feb. 20.

Week 1 , Week 2 , Week 3 , Week 4 , Week 5, Week 6

Instructor: Tom Hettmansperger

                  317 Thomas Bld
                  Phone: 865-2211
                  email: tph@stat.psu.edu
                  Office Hours: M, W 3:30-4:30

Grader: Ben Hedrick

You can send questions about the grading to Ben at: bjh148@email.psu.edu

Text: Statistical Methods in Biological and Health Sciences by J. Susan Milton

We will cover most of the material in the first 12 chapters with the exception of Chapter 7. The order will be Chapters 2, 3, 4, and 5. Then back to Chapter 1, followed by Chapters 6, 8-12.

There will be 2 exams and a comprehensive final. The two exams will be worth 100 points each and the final will be worth 200 points. Homework will be assigned and graded but will not count unless you are on a borderline. You will need a calculator for exams and I would suggest one that has statistical functions.

The first exam will be after Chapters 2, 3, 4, and 5. The second exam will be after Chapters 1, 6, 8, 9.

I will also assign a project to be handed in near the end of the semester.

We will use Minitab, a statistical software package, throughout the course. It is easy to use and I will provide any needed explanations.

Week 1. Assignment: Read Chapers 2 and 3.

Week 2. Assignment: Read Text Section 3.4. Due Friday, Jan. 23: Text, p101: #1, 5, 6, 10, 11, 14. Due Monday, Jan. 26: Read CNN Polling Details, Chapter 19 handout, and write a one page summary including what you consider the most interesting, surprising, confusing, and important points. Include a current health or biology poll and discuss it.

Week 3. Assignment Due Wed. Jan. 28: Solve the Monty Hall problem and argue whether there is a best strategy or not and if so what is it. To make discussion easier, suppose that you always pick door #1. Also do exercises 2, 3, 6, 8, and 10 on p113 of the text.

Week 4. Due Mon., Feb. 2: A summary discussion of the article on randomness. Also p131 exercises 3, 4, and 12, and p133 exercises 2 and 5 from the text. This week we will study the Binomial and Poisson probability models in Chapter 4. Due Fri., Feb. 6: p140 exercises 1, 5, 8, 9.

Week 5. Due Wed., Feb. 11: Poisson exercises p145 #2, 4, 7, 13. Continuous random variable exercises p152 #1, 4, 5 and p157 #2.

Week 6. We will begin statistical inference this week after finishing material on the normal probablility model. Due Monday, Feb. 16: Normal probability problems: p169 #5, 7, 9, 13, 14. There will be an exam on Friday, Feb. 20.