What Can this Course Do for Students?

This course will give students:

1. An incredible boost to resumes or job-seeking portfolios – a comprehensive statistical research project demonstrating to employers strong work ethic and top quality work,
2. Opportunities for developing leadership and interpersonal skills in a team environment, winning the heart of almost any employer,
3. Practical experience with computer-based technologies, increasingly essential to compete in today’s marketplace,
4. Problem-solving and critical thinking abilities that employers consider among the most important skills needed to succeed in the workplace, and
5. An understanding of statistics and research that will allow students to critically assess and understand the world of data around them.

Source for what employers want:  Are They Really Ready to Work? Employers’ Perspectives on the Basic Knowledge and Applied Skills of New Entrants to the 21st Century U.S. Workforce (September 2006), pg. 9 and 42-43, The Conference Board, Inc., the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, Corporate Voices for Working Families, and the Society for Human Resource Management.
 

In this class, students will learn all about data:  how to design data studies, how to collect data, and what to do with the data.  Students will learn how to represent a set of possibly thousands of data values as one single number (e.g., mean, median, mode, range, standard deviation) so that others can have an instant idea about the data.  Students will learn to create tables, charts and graphs to give instant visual impressions of data.  Students will learn how to make estimates and guesses for data not fully known, where they will survey only a few and yet make conclusions about many.  Students will also learn to analyze two different sets of data (e.g., age and height of children) to prove whether or not these sets are associated. 

Student Learning Outcomes:

Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Calculate and apply descriptive statistics to real world data.
2. Understand and recognize misleading statistics.
3. Calculate and analyze confidence intervals.
4. Apply probability distribution methods.
5. Evaluate studies using hypothesis testing methods.
6. Calculate and apply regression models and correlation analysis.
7. Effectively use appropriate technology in modeling and problem-solving.

Prerequisites and Co-requisites:

Algebra I, Algebra II and Geometry or the equivalent

Required Textbook & Courseware:

The course software (courseware) containing all of the online homework and quiz assignments is located in KNEWTON alta, and you can either purchase directly ($10 per month!!!) or indirectly (using bookstore code) here: https://knerd.me/2ypgyw.  
Note: I recommend purchasing directly from Knewton (link above) if possible because the bookstore has a hefty overhead!

Introductory Statistics by Barbara Illowsky and Susan Dean via OpenStax is our free online textbook is available here, https://openstax.org/details/books/introductory-statistics.  

• Minitab Statistical Software (Use on lab computers or download in D2L's Content, under the Minitab Module)  Note: Don't download Minitab until Project 1 is due to use the 30-day free trial.
• TI-83 or TI-84 calculator, which students can borrow for free from APSU at FC for those students who act quickly!

Each student's overall percentage grade will be based on the activities outlined below.  Please consult the schedule below for specific deadline dates.  

Activity	Percentage
Class Activities	15
Knewton Homework	15
Knewton Quizzes	5
Data & Statistics Group Projects (3)	15
Midterm Exam	20
Final Exam	30
Total	100

Overall + Homework Percentages	Letter Grade
If Overall > 90% and HW > 90%	A
If Overall > 80% and HW > 90%	B
If Overall > 70% and HW > 90%	C
If Overall > 60% and HW > 90%	D
If HW < 90%	F

Notice that the homework mastery average before due dates must be at least 90% in order to pass the course.

A midterm grade shall be awarded for all students in this course. The grade awarded will not be based on 50% of the course requirements and may or may not differ from the final grade. Your midterm grade will be posted on AP Self Service.  

1. Online Knewton Homework - Homework assignments covering each chapter will be completed through Knewton.  Students must achieve at least 90% on each homework assignment to qualify to pass the course.
2. Online Knewton Quizzes - One Knewton quiz for each chapter will be given.  Quizzes are open book and open class notes but not open neighbor. Quizzes are expected to be the sole work of the student taking the quiz.
3. Class Activities - The class activity grades are determined using 5% from accuracy, 5% from the percentage of Poll Everywhere questions answered, and 5% from participation during class as determined by the following criteria:
   • Being early enough to be logged into WiFi and Poll Everywhere, being paired together, and being ready to work before 8:30 AM, 
   • Speaking always and only at the right times, which are when paired and when you are in the teacher role – whenever I emphasize to the class that we are working individually, that is a really good sign that someone is earning less than full credit here,
   • Working hard during the entire class, always focused only on that day's topic and not leaving the classroom to take phone calls or bathroom trips except during the official 10 minute break.  Students who finish questions early should review lecture notes during all extra time to receive full credit for this portion.
4. Data & Statistics Group Projects - Students will be acting in a group as real-life junior statisticians by experiencing the process of a real world statistical project from start to finish.  The overarching project is divided among three smaller projects:  one on data gathering and two on data reporting and analyses using Minitab.  (Similar to Excel, Minitab is a statistical software.) Each group member is not only responsible for his or her assigned portion of the project but for the entire project itself. Each group member should, at least one day before the project due date, make sure that the submitted project file(s) in the project dropbox(es) are complete and accurate according to the rubric for that project. Group projects not submitted to appropriate dropboxes by the due date will result in group grades of zero.
5. Midterm and Final Exams - Midterm exams will be covering Chapters 1 through 4 and 6, and the comprehensive final exam will be covering Chapters 1 through 4, 6 through 9, and 12.

Students are expected to:

1. Be respectful,
2. Attend class and be early enough to setup and login before class,
3. Make a conscious effort to avoid disrupting classmates during class,
4. Allow the entire class to answer phone calls together on speakerphone should a cell phone ring (not vibrate),  
5. Place cell phones and class notes of any kind in any form in designated areas during exams in order to avoid failing the course,
6. Not bring minors under the age of 18 to class unless said minors are enrolled in the class, by university policy, and
7. Read and follow the "Code of Student Conduct" in the Student Handbook.

Syllabus Changes