1.  Instructional Team
 

Course Coordinator: Maria I. Ripol		Lab Coordinator: Megan Meece
office: Griffin Floyd 117 C		office: Griffin Floyd 117 B
phone: 392-1941 ext 217		phone: 392-1941 ext 211
email:STA2023C (in WebCT)		email:mmeece@stat.ufl.edu
Office Hours:TR 7th & 8th periods		Office Hours:MW 2nd & 6th pds
	or by appointment
Teaching Assistants: email in WebCT:   Teaching Assistants:  email in WebCT: Kristen Cartwright  k12isten   Justin Manjourides  eljustin Janice Col  jcol   Victor Mergel  vmergel Rajarshi Dey  rajarshi   Ashif Nazirudeen  rnashif Rebekah Galati  galati11   George Papageorgiou  papgeo Mihai Giurcanu  giurcanu   Breagin Riley  msriley Hsi-i Kao  hkao   Ananya Roy  ananya Tibor Krska  krska   Sourish Saha  sourish Soumita Lahiri  soumita   Robert Sandbach  rsandbac Tian Liu  tianliu   Samara Strauber  strauber Lab Section Information and  Tutoring Room Schedule

 
 

2.  General Course Information

Course Description
STA 2023 is an introductory course that assumes no prior knowledge of statistics but does assume some knowledge of high school algebra. Basic statistical concepts and methods are presented in a manner that emphasizes understanding the principles of data collection and analysis rather than theory.  Much of the course will be devoted to discussions of how statistics is commonly used in the real world.  There are two major parts to this course:

I  Data – which includes graphical and numerical summaries to describe the distribution of a variable, or the relationship between two variables (chapters 1 and 2, approximately 6 weeks), and data production to learn how to design good surveys and experiments, collect data from samples that are representative of the whole population, and avoid common sources of biases (chapter 3, 1 week.)

II  Probability and Inference – using the language of probability and the properties of numerical summaries computed from a random samples (chapters 4 and 5, 2 weeks), we learn to draw conclusions about the population of interest, based on our random sample, and attach a measure of reliability to them (chapters 6, 7, 8, approximately 6 weeks).

Course Objective
The primary goal of the course is to help students understand how the process of posing a question, collecting data relevant to that question, analyzing data, and interpreting data can help them find answers to real problems from their world.
 
 
 

3.  Required Materials

1. STA 2023 Course Guide, to be purchased at the University Copy and More (1620 W. University Ave.).  This Course Guide is a binder that includes:
• the Course Handbook – like a super sized syllabus, this is a manual with the information you will need for this course
• the Test Packet with formulas and tables for each exam
• copies of the lecture notes
• worksheets for the Lab portion of the course
2. Introduction to the Practice of Statistics, by David S. Moore and George P. McCabe, 4th edition, Freeman, 2003, including a disk with all data sets for the book.
3. Scientific Calculator that has some basic statistical functions: mean and standard deviation. Many inexpensive calculators (around $10 to $15) have these functions; check the manual or look for the following symbols:  and either s or s_n-1 .  All of the more expensive graphing calculator have them as well, but it is not necessary to buy one of them for this class.

4.  Course Website

For the first two weeks or so: http://www.stat.ufl.edu/~mripol/2023.htm
After Drop/Add, in WebCT: http://webct.ufl.edu

The course will make use of a password protected website inside WebCT, an integrated, Web based classroom management tool.  It takes about a week and a half to get a final list of students from the registrar to create the student accounts and passwords.  Once that is done, the course website will move to WebCT and instructions will appear on the class website on how to access it. For more information on WebCT, go to their homepage at: http://webct.ufl.edu.

In WebCT you will be able to:

• check the announcement page

• find any updates to this Handbook
• check the calendar for upcoming quiz, exam or lab dates
• watch the lectures as streaming video
• take the online quizzes
• work on the practice questions
• send email to the instructors, TA's and other students in the class
• check your grades

5.  Lectures

Lectures are delivered live TRF 2nd period in Carleton Auditorium.  The lectures will also be videotaped and available to view online. Students can choose to attend these live lectures, or to view the lectures online, regardless of which section they are registered for.

Live Lectures
 

Period	Lecture	Room
TRF 2	live	CAR 100
TRF 4	videotaping	Norman G 520

Online Lectures
Links to the videotaped lectures will be found at the class website.   A link to the free software needed will also be provided on the website.  You can watch these lectures on your home computer, with a 56K or better modem and audio capabilities, after downloading the free software from RealPlayer.  You can also watch them from any computer on campus (CIRCA labs or libraries) using your Gatorlink account and stereo mini headphones. IMPORTANT -  We cannot guarantee that the online lectures will work well for each of you.  Be prepared to attend the live lectures if that turns out to be the case.  Some students find that the online lectures are too slow, or they are frequently interrupted by "internet congestion".  These problems are worse if your internet connection is slow, or if you try to watch them during very busy times - between noon and midnight, EST.  If you have difficulty watching the lectures online from home, try watching them from a computer on campus.  Also remember that everyone is welcome to attend the live lectures, regardless of which section they are registered for.  As a last resort, you can purchase the videotapes (see below).

Slow Lectures?

• Avoid busy times on the Internet.
• Try both formats - Real Player and Windows Media, to see which one works best for you.
• Make sure that you have the most recent version of Real Player or Windows Media, since the older versions will be slower and jerkier.
• Try both links - those that allow you to watch the lectures directly from my directory, and those through WebCT.
• Click HERE to read some of the feedback I have received from students this semester (updated regularly).
• Click HERE to see the results of a survey done last semester on how the class in general, and the online videos in particular, worked for the students. (PDF file - requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)

Videotaped Lectures
Videotapes of the lectures will also be available for sale at TIS Bookstore located at 1227 W. University Ave.  These will be available on Saturday for the lectures taught that week.  Three lectures in one videotape sell for approximately $10.
 
 
 

6.  Labs

Starting the first week of classes, students are required to attend Lab once a week, according to the section they are registered for.  In Lab, groups of around 40 students will meet with a TA to work on a simple, hands-on activity related to the material being covered in class.  All labs will meet in Turlington 1315.  Worksheets with instructions for each Lab are included in the Course Guide (binder) that you buy at University Copies and More. Students must bring these worksheets to Lab each week.  The worksheets must be turned in to the TA before leaving Lab that day.  They will be graded on a scale of 10 points.
 
 

Lab Attendance and Policies:

• Students must attend the section they are registered for - you will get no credit for your work if you attend a different section.
• Students must be on time for Labs, and will not be allowed to enter if they are more than five minutes late.  Late students would disrupt the activity, and create problems for the rest of the students and the TA, so it will not be tolerated.
• Students must come prepared to Lab, having watched the lectures that cover material relevant to the Lab's activity.
• Students must bring the Lab Worksheet to Lab with them - you will get no credit for hand written labs.
• Students will not be permitted to make up any Labs that they have missed, regardless of the reason.  Instead, we will drop the lowest five grades for all labs and quizzes combined.

7.  Online Quizzes

We will have online quizzes most weeks, once WebCT accounts have been created.  These quizzes will cover a small amount of material, and are designed primarily to encourage you to keep up with the lectures (particularly if you choose to watch them on the web at your own pace).

Each quiz will be available from Friday morning to Monday afternoon.  You will be allowed three attempts for each quiz – each randomly generated, so the questions won't be identical.  Given all these opportunities, all students should do extremely well on the quizzes.  Hopefully they will serve the purpose of improving your grade in the class, as well as be an important tool in learning the material for the course.  You can also print your quizzes and use them to study for exams.  There will be no makeup quizzes for any reason.  Instead, we will drop the lowest five grades for all labs and quizzes combined.

Problems with the Quiz Function in WebCT?

Check the settings on your computer to see if anything could be interfering with the quizzes - like turned off pop-up windows or cookies.

If your Internet provider is Cox digital cable  -be aware that it has a feature called "Zone Alarm", a firewall,  that interferes with quizzes in WebCT.  To turn it off, right click with your mouse and disable "ZA". You can turn this feature back on after you complete the quiz.

Remember that you can do the quizzes from the computers on campus (CIRCA labs, libraries) or from a friend's computer - but make sure to log in to your own account.

For further questions, contact the CIRCA help desk.

 

Nasty message saying your time is up?  Sometimes, when submitting one try of the quiz you accidentally open the quiz again and that starts your next trial of the quiz.  This can happen if you use the "back" button on your browser instead of WebCT's links.  When you come in hours later, it says your time has expired.  You are still allowed to save the questions and submit the quiz, even if the time is up, but you get very annoying messages.  You can ignore them, or email the course coordinator (STA2023C or Ripol inside WebCT) so it can be fixed.
 
 
 

8.  Exams

There will be four assembly exams, three night exams given during the term (each worth 100 points), and the last one during final exam week (worth 150 points).  All of the exams will be completely in Multiple Choice format. Exams will cover a larger amount of material that the quizzes and will also place more emphasis in the understanding of concepts and ideas behind the formulas. Room assignments for each exam will be announced in class and on the website. Academic dishonesty on any exam will result in a grade of zero on that exam.

Assembly Exam Dates
 

Exam 1	Tuesday, September 16, 2003	8:20 pm – 10:00 pm	Chapter 1
Exam 2	Tuesday, October 7, 2003	8:20 pm – 10:00 pm	Chapters 2, 3
Exam 3	Tuesday, November 4, 2003	8:20 pm – 10:00 pm	Chapters 4, 5, 6
Exam 4	Monday, December 15, 2003	3:00 pm –  5:00 pm	Chapters 7, 8

Makeup Exam Policy

• In case of conflict with a class: Assembly exams have priority over regularly scheduled classes. The instructor for the other class must allow you to make up any work you miss because of an assembly exam - contact them early to make arrangements.  This is a University of Florida policy, as stated on the Registrar's website (http://www.reg.ufl.edu/soc/exam-policies.html).
• In case of conflict with another exam: Assembly exams have priority over time-of-class exams. If you have two assembly exams scheduled for the same day and time, the course with the higher number has priority.  This is a University of Florida policy, as stated on the Registrar's website (http://www.reg.ufl.edu/soc/exam-policies.html).  Contact the instructor of the appropriate class early, to make arrangements for a makeup exam - do not wait until the last minute.  If you need to schedule a makeup exam for STA 2023 because it conflicts with another assembly exam for a course with a higher number, you must contact your Statistics instructor at least ONE WEEK prior to the regularly scheduled exam.
• In case of sudden illness or emergency: Contact the instructor prior to the exam - as soon as you realize you will be unable to take the test at the scheduled time.  Each case will be reviewed individually. Valid and detailed documentation is a prerequisite for scheduling a makeup exam under such extenuating circumstances.
• To make arrangements for a makeup exam: Contact the instructor through email in WebCT, in person during office hours, or through the phone (information appears on first section of the Handbook).  Makeup exams will cover the same material as the regularly scheduled exam, but will not necessarily be in multiple choice format.  Makeup exams will typically be schedule for 7am to avoid conflicts with other courses.

• a scientific calculator
• student ID
• gator ID number
• pencils (#2 or higher) and eraser for completing the bubble sheets

9.  Lecture Notes

The notes used in the lectures are included in the Course Guide (binder) you buy at University Copies and More.  When you are following the lectures, whether live, video taped or on the web, you should always have the lecture notes in front of you. The instructor will go over the definitions and theory, and work out the examples on the spaces provided.
 
 
 

10.  Homework and Practice Questions

Homework
Below you will find a list of suggested homework problems from the text, by section.  These problems are assigned to help you master the material and will not be collected. You can get help with these problems from the tutors in the Tutoring Room.

Answers to odd numbered problems are available in the back of the text. An Instructor's Guide with Solutions to all homework problems is available on Reserve at Marston Science Library and is also available in the Tutoring Room.

Practice Questions in WebCT
In addition to the homework problems from the book, you will find in WebCT some practice questions done mostly in multiple choice format.  These problems do not count for your grade, but are good practice for the quizzes and exams.  You can submit the answers to find out if they are correct, and you can do the problems an unlimited number of times.

Doing homework problems using Minitab
Students also have the option to answer certain homework questions from the textbook using Minitab, a statistical computer program.  Information about Minitab appears in the next section.  The data sets for most homework problems are included in the data disk that comes with the textbook (the disk with the falling men), and are also available on the publisher's website: www.whfreeman.com/ips4e/.
 

Section	Suggested Exercises
Ch 1 Looking at Data - Distributions
1.1  Displaying Distributions with Graphs	1.1  1.5  1.9  1.12  1.15  1.25
1.2  Describing Distributions with Numbers	1.44  1.54  1.59  1.61
1.3  The Normal Distributions	1.77  1.78  1.80  1.86  1.89  1.90  1.93  1.100  1.103
EXAM 1
Ch 2 Looking at Data - Relationships
2.1  Scatterplots	2.1  2.6
2.2  Correlation	2.33  2.34
2.3  Least Squares Regression	2.35  2.38  2.44  2.53
2.4  Cautions about Regression and Correlation	2.59  2.71  2.72
2.5  The Question of Causation	2.78  2.80  2.81  2.86  2.88
Ch 3 Producing Data
3.1  First Steps	3.1  3.3  3.5
3.2  Design of Experiments	3.9  3.10  3.11  3.21
3.3  Sampling Design	3.36  3.37  3.51  3.53  3.55
EXAM 2
Ch 4 Prob. and Sampling Distributions
4.1  Randomness	4.6  4.7
4.2  Probability Models	4.15  4.17  4.19  4.30
4.3  Random Variables	4.41  4.42  4.43  4.45  4.51  4.52  4.55
Ch 5 Sampling Distributions
5.1  Sampling Distn. for Counts and Proportions	5.1  5.3  5.4  5.12  5.13  5.19
5.2  Sampling Distn. of a Sample Mean	5.28  5.29  5.31  5.32
Ch 6 Introduction to Inference
6.1  Estimating with Confidence	6.3  6.6  6.9  6.16  6.23
6.2  Tests of Significance	6.31  6.33  6.35  6.37  6.39  6.40  6.43  6.46  6.48  6.53  6.55  6.56  6.58  6.59
6.3  Use and Abuse of Tests	6.71  6.72  6.74  6.75  6.76  6.77
EXAM 3
Ch 7 Inference for Distributions
7.1  Inference for the Mean of a Population	7.2  7.3  7.4  7.5  7.6  7.10  7.13  7.14  7.15  7.20  7.21  7.23  7.42  7.44
7.2  Comparing Two Means	7.53  7.54  7.55  7.56  7.57  7.58  7.59  7.61  7.62  7.63  7.64  7.70
Ch 8 Inference for Proportions
8.1  Inference for a Single Proportion	8.1  8.2  8.3  8.4  8.9  8.138.20  8.21  8.24
8.2  Comparing Two Proportions	8.31  8.32  8.33  8.34  8.48
EXAM 4

 
 

11.  Minitab

Minitab is a very easy to use, and powerful statistical computer package. It is used by colleges, universities and businesses around the world, and runs on most computer platforms, including Windows and Macintosh.  We will use Minitab in several of our Labs - the Lab Worksheets will give you directions on how to use it.  You can also use Minitab to solve some of the homework problems assigned from the book.  The data sets for most homework problems are included in the data disk that comes with the textbook (the disk with the falling men), and are also available on the publisher's website: www.whfreeman.com/ips4e/.  Minitab is available at all the CIRCA Labs on campus.  You can also buy it for your home computer (or download the demo version - free for 30 days) at the Minitab website at www.minitab.com.
 
 
 

12.  Tutoring Room

The TA's for the class will be available to answer questions about the material covered in class, homework problems, etc, in the Tutoring Room located in Griffin Floyd 104.  It will be open approximately 40 hours a week - the exact hours of operation will be announced on the website.  There is no need to make an appointment, just go whenever it is convenient for you and the TA on duty will help answer your questions.
 
 

13.  Course Assessment
 

Grade Structure				Grading Scale
Exam 1	100 points		A	537 – 600 points
Exam 2	100 points		B+	513 – 536 points
Exam 3	100 points		B	477 – 512 points
Exam 4	150 points		C+	453 – 476 points
Labs and Quizzes	150 points		C	387 – 452 points
TOTAL	600 points		D	360 – 386 points   (No D+ given)
			E	359 points and below

 
 

14.  Course Policies

Email
Email relating to information about the class should be sent inside WebCT to your TA or the instructor. Your message will be answered within two working days, in most cases. However, we ask you to please refer to this Handbook and the course website to try to find the answers for yourself. Questions regarding the material covered in class, homework problems, or Lab should be asked in person, in the Tutoring Room, in Lab or in class. Statistical questions often require formulas or pictures, which can make it very hard to communicate by email.

Instructor's Honor Code
We the members of the University of Florida community, pledge to hold ourselves and our peers to the highest standards of honesty and integrity.

Academic Dishonesty
We adhere to the University of Florida rules and guidelines for handling instances of academic dishonesty. Please refer to the Office for Student Services for detailed information about the current policies.

Students with Disabilities
Students who require special accommodations in class or during exams should follow the procedures outlined by the Disability Resources Program (http://www.dso.ufl.edu/drp/).  Please bring the course coordinator your letter of accommodations in the first two weeks of classes, during office hours, or make an appointment if you cannot make it during those hours.  This letter must be discussed with the course coordinator directly, not with the lab TA, for accommodations on exams to be made.

Class Attendance and Behavior
Attendance to class is not mandatory, since you will be able to watch the lectures online. Attendance to Lab, however, is mandatory, and you are required to attend the Lab section for which you are registered.  For both Labs and lectures, we ask that you arrive on time, and to behave in a respectful manner towards the instructors and your fellow students.  In fact, no one will be allowed in Lab if they are more than five minutes late.  Please turn your off cellular phones and refrain from eating, drinking, reading newspapers, doing homework for other classes, and excessive talking.

Makeup Quizzes and Labs
There will be NO makeup labs or quizzes under any circumstances - instead, we will drop the lowest five grades for all labs and quizzes combined.  These five drops are meant to allow for missed labs or quizzes due to illness, personal or family emergency, personal or University sanctioned travel, religious observance, tardiness, laziness, and all other reasons.  Do not abuse your drops - you never know if you will need them later.

Makeup Exams
See the section on Exams for exam makeup policy.

Grading
Grades will be changed only when an error has been made; negotiation is not appropriate.

Incompletes
Incompletes are only assigned when extraordinary circumstances (such as an accident, or extended hospitalization), arising after the date for dropping the course, prevent the student from completing the course requirements.  Having a failing grade in the course is not a valid reason for requesting an Incomplete.
 
 
 

15.  Where to Get Help for this course:

• in class, from your instructor
• in Lab, from your TA
• in the Tutoring Room
• for many classes, not just statistics, at the Tutoring Lab in the Basement of Broward Hall - a schedule of their hours can be obtained by calling 392-2010 or by accessing www.teachingcenter.ufl.edu.
• as a last resort, by getting (and paying) a private tutor. A list of private tutors can be obtained from the Statistics Department secretary in Griffin-Floyd 103.

16.  How to do well in the course:

• Keep up with the lectures, either by attending a live class or watching them online.
• Attend Lab regularly, and on time.
• Visit the course website regularly, to read announcements and take the online quizzes.
• Do well on the Labs and quizzes, and complete them on time. That is the easiest way to improve your grade.
• Work out the suggested homework problems regularly, soon after the material is covered in lecture. Check your answers at the Science Library or with the TA’s in the Tutoring Room.
• Work out the Practice Questions available in WebCT.
• Visit the Tutoring Room regularly to get help from the TA’s. Their job is to clarify any questions that you may have, and to help you understand the material and learn to do the problems.
• Get to know other students in the class and get together regularly to work on homework problems, and to study for quizzes and exams.
• Prepare carefully for exams by going over the lectures, doing your homework and practice questions, studying your quizzes and reading the book.  Pay special attention to the understanding of concepts and ideas behind the formulas.