Statistics 371 Introductory Applied Statistics for the Life Sciences Professor Office Contact Web Office Hours Class Hours Room Textbook Bret Larget 1250A MSC Medical Sciences Center Phone 262 7979 E Mail larget stat wisc edu email preferred http www stat wisc edu larget Mon 11 00 noon Tue 3 45 5 00 Wed 8 00 9 30 and by appointment T R 8 00 9 15 331 SMI Service Memorial Institute Statistics for the Life Sciences Third Edition by Samuels and Witmer Prerequisites While there is a formal prerequisite of background mathematical knowledge that could be satisfied by a course in college algebra or calculus the course requires no calculus and minimal algebra Credit cannot be given for this course if you have already completed Statistics 201 224 301 or 324 Students will need a scientific calculator with statistical functions Any scientific calculator that can compute a standard deviation will suffice Course Objectives The primary course objectives are for the students enrolled in the course 1 to develop mastery of basic statistical concepts 2 to develop the ability to apply these concepts correctly especially in problems originating in the life sciences 3 to learn to communicate effectively in writing the results of a statistical analysis to a non statistical audience and 4 to gain basic competence with the modern statistical computing software R Statistical Computing Modern statistical practice depends on statistical computing For many homework assignments and some exams I will ask you to use R an open source free software that runs under Windows Macs and Linux R is also available in several public computer labs on campus If you learn to use R well in this course you will have gained a skill will benefit you in your other courses and whenever you need to do data analysis the rest of your life Some exams will include a take home portion in which I will expect you to carry out some analyses using R In class portions of exams will not test R syntax but will ask you to interpret R output Grading Your grade will be determined by exams 90 and homework 10 There will be nine short exams throughout the semester each worth twenty points On some days I will give two short exams During the final exam period time you may take additional exams to replace worse scores from earlier exams or scores from exams you missed I will convert your homework total to a score from 0 to 20 with 95 or higher earning 20 points 90 or higher earning 19 points and so on I will assign course grades according to this scale Course Points 188 200 174 187 5 160 173 5 146 159 5 120 145 5 110 119 5 0 109 5 Grade A AB B BC C D F It is possible for a student who does well on all of the exams and on the homework to earn an A prior to the final exam period Exams The nine exams will be in three categories probability 3 one and two sample inference 3 and linear models 3 Each exam is worth twenty points I will not give make up exams during the semester if you miss an exam you will need to take a replacement exam during the final exam time Specifically I will not give make up exams for attending family functions extending breaks or illness There is no penalty for missing an exam other than a need to make it up during the final exam period At my sole discretion I may permit alternative exam times for students who give me prior notice of a university related conflict Homework There will be 12 homework assignments worth 50 points each consisting of exercises from the textbook exercises from other sources and problems to solve by computer Your homework solutions should be organized and neat with solutions in order the order problems were assigned Each problem solution should include a brief description of the problem that may be paraphrased from the actual problem as well as your work We will penalize homework that is not clearly legible and out of order Very late homework will receive no credit Honors Student taking the course for honors will write a short criticism of the statistical methods employed in two papers and will carry out and report on statistical analyses based on data from these papers Course Web Page The course web page will include an anticipated schedule including exam dates homework assignments supplementary notes help for the statistical package and other information useful for the course You will be able to access the course web page from my home page http www stat wisc edu larget Academic Honesty You are permitted and in fact encouraged to talk to other students your teaching assistant or me about homework Your TA or I may give you clues or discuss similar problems without doing your homework for you You may look through books or Web pages for solutions to problems However you may not present other people s work as your own Make sure to include with any submitted solutions to problems references to any sources of direct assistance If you work with other students solving problems make sure that you write up your own solution independently It is not acceptable for one student to write a solution for another student to copy You must work independently during exams including take home portions of exams You may not share calculators or pass notes during the exams
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