Syllabus
Statistical thinking will one day be as necessary for efficient citizenship as the ability to read or write. —attributed to H. G. Wells1
Overview
The time that H. G. Wells prophesied over a century ago has arrived. Math 11 is an introduction to statistics, ie, the practice of ethically collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data.
Key concepts the course will cover include the structure of data, numerical and graphical summaries of data, p-value hypothesis tests, and confidence intervals. En route, the course will cover some concepts from probability which form the mathematical backbone of statistical analysis.
Course Materials
Textbook
By official decree, the textbook for this course is Stats: Data and Models (5th edition) by De Veaux, Velleman, and Bock. Please note that, after two weeks, you’ll be automatically charged by RedShelf for digital access to this textbook through Canvas, unless you explicitly opt out.
The open-source textbook OpenIntro Statistics (4th edition) by Diez, Çetinkaya-Rundel, and Barr covers essentially the same content and is useful. You can download it from the website for any price you like, including $0. It’s also available for free in Japanese translation, and there’s a Chinese translation in progress.
Chat Software
Zulip is chat software (a bit like Discord, Slack, or Piazza), and it
will be our primary means of communication for this class. It’s
open-source and you can use it either in a browser or by installing an
app on any platform. I’ve set up a Zulip organization with
a dedicated stream for our class. You can find an invite link on Canvas.
Register using any name you’d like to use for this class, but you
must use your official ...@ucsd.edu email address
as it appears on the class roster. If you don’t have access to the Zulip
invite link, or you don’t have a ...@ucsd.edu email
address, please reach out to me to explain the situation right away.
Please use the Zulip class stream to ask any content-related and logistics-related questions you have. Certain assignments for the course will ask you to post things to our class stream regularly. The TAs and I will also use Zulip to make class-related announcements. If you have private questions about situations specific to you, please use Zulip to send direct messages (instead of sending emails or Canvas messages).
Statistical Software
By official decree, you’ll be required to use Minitab to do some statistical analysis for some lab assignments. See the lab webpage for details.
The open-source software RStudio is a much more powerful and popular tool for statistcal analysis. It’s most likely what you’ll use if you analyze data in the future, but it isn’t required for this course. If you decide you want to play with it, you should install R and then install RStudio on your computer (in that order), and then feel free to ask me about resources to help you learn how to use it.
Course Structure
Philosophy
No class (or classes) will ever teach you everything you might need to know about a subject, so in the long run, the most important thing to learn is how to learn independently: in pedagogical jargon, that’s “how to be a self-regulated learner.” Research suggests that the following three things are key aspects of learning how to be a self-regulated learner of math:
Active reading. Reading math is very different from other kinds of reading. You can’t read a math textbook the same way you might read a novel for pleasure if you’re hoping to get anything out of it. You have to stop constantly to work out exercises and examples yourself, instead of just reading through them. You have to doodle pictures to make sure you have some kind of an image in your head of what’s going on. You have to try to formulate precise questions about things you don’t understand.
Reciprocal teaching. Talking to your peers about math is incredibly important. If you don’t understand a particular concept, you’re much more likely to get an explanation that you actually find helpful from a peer. If you think you do understand a particular concept and help a peer who’s struggling, you’ll almost certainly find that the process of explaining the concept will solidify your own understanding of it. Learning happens best in community, and it is in your best interest to make sure you have a mathematical community.
Metacognition. A key part of learning how to learn is reflecting on your learning and taking the time to ask yourself questions about your learning. What parts of your study habits are working well for you? What parts aren’t working and how can you change these parts? What kind of a mindset do you have towards math, and what can you be doing to help cultivate a growth mindset in yourself?
Evidence-based methods for practicing these three things are built into course structure. It would benefit you to bear these three things in mind as you go through the course.
Class
This class will be “flipped.” You’ll be expected to read and make a preliminary attempt to understand material on your own before coming to class. I’ll typically start class off with a brief summary of your latest reading. It won’t be a substitute for the reading; in other words, you shouldn’t expect lectures. We’ll usually spend most of our time working on problems together.
The class will be podcasted, but you are strongly advised to attend class and only use the podcast in unusual situations. Take advantage of your tuition. You’ll miss out on a significant amount of learning if the podcast is your primary means of engaging with the class.
Discussion
You have access to weekly discussion sections run by extremely knowledgable TAs. These are stellar opportunities for you to develop your problem-solving skills and to ask questions in a “cozier” environment. Take advantage of your tuition and attend discussion.
Assignments
There will be a few different types of assignments in the course. The links below describe these assignments in further detail:
Reading Assignments: These involve reading something, attempting some exercises (“CC”), and formulating a question about the reading (“RQ”). You’ll usually have 3 of these due every week.
Reflection Assignments: These ask you to reflect on various aspects of your relationship with mathematics, your mathematical learning, etc. You’ll have 1 of these due every week.
Labs: These ask you to play with some data using some statistical software. You’ll usually have 1 of these due every week.
Exams: There will be two midterms and a final. After the midterms (but not the final), you’ll have a chance to do some corrections.
Grades
It’s unfortunate that grades exist, but they do, and here’s how they’ll be determined in this class. First off, please note that, due to resource limitations, we will not be able to give credit for late assignments2 or offer make-up exams.
Numerical scores will be calculated as follows:
| Component | % | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Reading Questions (RQ) | 10% | You get 1 point for each Reading Assignment for which you post a valid Reading Question on time, up to a maximum of \(n-4\), where \(n\) is the total number of Reading Assignments that ask you to post an RQ. In other words, you don’t need to post a Reading Question for every Reading Assignment to get full credit (and there’s no extra credit for doing so). |
| Comprehension Checks (CC) | 10% | You get 1 point for CC problem you submit as a part of your Reading Assignments, up to a maximum of \(n-16\), where \(n\) is the total number of CC problems that are assigned over the course of the quarter. In other words, you don’t need to submit every CC problem every time to get full credit (and there’s no extra credit for doing so). |
| Reflection Assignments | 10% | Half of this score is allocated to the Weekly Reflections (WR), with one point for each on-time submission. The remaining half is split evenly between the Mathematical Autobiography and the Final Reflection. |
| Labs | 15% | Each lab has equal weight. Your lowest lab score can be replaced by your final exam score, if your final exam score is higher. In particular, this policy automatically comes into effect if you miss a lab. |
| Midterms | 35% | Each midterm has equal weight. Your lower midterm score can be replaced by your final exam score, if your final exam score is higher. In particular, this policy automatically comes into effect if you miss a midterm. |
| Final Exam | 20% | You must take the final exam in order to pass the class. |
Your numerical score will be then converted to a letter grade using the following cutoffs:
| A+ | A | A- | B+ | B | B- | C+ | C | C- |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 97 | 93 | 90 | 87 | 83 | 80 | 77 | 73 | 70 |
At the end of the quarter, I may decide to lower some of the above cutoffs, but I will not increase them.
Accommodations
If you experience disability-related barriers to your learning, please contact the Office for Students with Disabilities right away to have them provide a current Authorization for Accommodation (AFA). The AFA should be received at least one week in advance of the requested accommodations; we might be unable to accommodate late requests. If your accommodations compel you to take an exam at a different time than the rest of the class, you may be given a different exam of equivalent difficulty.
Integrity
Act with integrity. You’ll learn more, and you’ll be practicing good habits for ethical decisions that you’ll have to make for the rest of your life. If you have a question about whether something class-related is integrous, just ask first. Academic integrity violations have to be reported and result in serious consequences, none of which is any fun for anyone involved, so please, just don’t do it.
Diversity
The pursuit of knowledge thrives in diverse and inclusive environments. I expect that all of us, myself included, will work towards making our class a welcoming space for everyone, no matter how we might identify on race, ethnicity, nationality, socioeconomic background, gender, sexual orientation, ability, age, and the many other dimensions of identity. I also encourage you to reach out if there are ways to have our space be more comfortable for you. If anyone says anything in class that makes you feel unwelcome, please let me know.