Syllabus (subject to change)
Section 1: Numbers in Context
September 4, Tuesday.... Introduction to course. Noticing
numbers and making sense of them.
Reading and writing about numbers; working with quantitative
information.
September 6, Thursday....
How do we compare
numbers? Absolute and relative change, percentages.
September 11, Tuesday.... Using the web to find
information; the importance of zero; significant digits.
Note:
Add/drop ends today.
September 13, Thursday.... Scientific notation; large
and
small numbers.
September 18, Tuesday.... Large and small
numbers
continued; estimation.
September 20, Thursday.... Converting units; currency conversions;
Google
calculator and other web resources.
September 25, Tuesday.... More about conversions; currency
conversions and other examples.
September 27, Thursday....
October 2,
Tuesday.... Quick introduction to interest; cost of
living comparisons; the effect
of inflation.
October 4,
Thursday.... EXAM 1 This exam will cover all of section 1.
Section 2: Probability and Chance
October 9,
Tuesday.... Introduction to probability and chance. Lottery
payoffs and expected value.
October 11, Thursday.... Flipping
coins
and Poisson processes; the St. Petersburg paradox.
October 16, Tuesday.... Understanding risk, survey reports, and
false positives.
Section 3:
Descriptive Statistics
October 18, Thursday.... Visual representations of data
(reading and understanding histograms, pie charts, and other graphs).
October 23, Tuesday.... Using Excel to
constuct graphs; formatting and labelling.
October 25, Thursday.... Measures of central
tendancy (mean, median, mode); standard deviation.
October 30, Tuesday.... Lying with
statistics; misuse of data.
November 1, Thursday.... Income distribution.
November 6, Tuesday.... EXAM 2
This
exam will cover sections 2 and 3.
November 8, Thursday.... Student presentations from
section 3.
Note: today is the Pass/Fail, Course
Withdrawal
deadline.
Section 4: Models of Dependence
November 13, Tuesday.... Three views of dependency: tables of
values,
graphs, and algebraic formulas. Using Excel to understand and
predict; introduction to models.
November 15, Thursday.... More about models and using
Excel; introduction to linear models and straight lines.
November 20, Tuesday.... Linear models continued; linear
regression; correlation
and causation.
November 22, Thursday..... Thanksgiving Holiday - no class.
November 27, Tuesday.... Simple and compound
interest,
review of absolute and proportional change.
November 29, Thursday.... Exponential models;
exponential
regression.
December 4, Tuesday....
Doubling
time; Rule of 70; exponential decay.
December 6, Thursday.... Graduated income tax
and
other examples.
December 11, Tuesday.... Other models, if time
permits.
December 13, Thursday..... Last class, review for final exam.
Final Exam Week: December 17 - 21