Course will introduce statistical ideas to students. The student will reach an understanding of these statistical ideas, be able to deal critically with statistical arguments, and gain an understanding of the impact of statistical ideas on public policy and in other areas of academic study.

Producing and Organizing Data through Sampling Designing an Experiment

Describing Distributions

Understanding Relationships

Probability: Language of Randomness

Statistical Inference

The primary objective of this course is to make students statistically literate. By developing the ability to identify the various representations and misrepresentations of statistical data, a student should be able to distinguish between valid and invalid arguments in order to arrive at an informed judgment. After completing this course, students should be able to read critically and understand reports of experiments and surveys that are published in newspapers, magazines, academic journals, and the Internet. The constant focus of this course is for students to understand the importance of statistical data analysis and decision-making.

The course is taught in a lecture-discussion setting. Newspaper and magazine articles with considerable information on how methods of statistics are used or misused will be provided to the students to facilitate classroom discussion. Projects may be assigned in which the students carry out small-scale surveys, experiments or data analysis.

Students are expected to attend all class meetings, participate in class discussions, work exercise problems in and out of class, perform satisfactorily on all quizzes and exams, and complete projects. Projects may require a written proposal, an oral presentation or a written report.