Sociology 3112-001 Introduction to Social Statistics Spring 2009 University of Utah M 6:00 -8:45 PM Bountiful 304 Instructor: Jeremy Marshall Office Hours: by appointment Email: [email protected] (I am difficult to contact on weekends) Lab: Mon or Wed 10:45 AM -11:30 AM, Tues or Thurs 7:30 am - 8:50 am, or Thurs evenings 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm. Course Website: http://www.soc.utah.edu/courses/soc3112 Class Objectives This course is designed to introduce you to statistics within a social science context and will enable you to calculate and interpret statistics as well as understand when specific types of statistics are appropriate. You will learn both the theory and application of statistics and have an introduction to more practical applications of statistics using statistical software in a computer lab (SPSS). The first half of this course will cover descriptive statistics including frequency tables, measures of central tendency, and variability. We will also discuss relationships between variables including measures of association and bivariate regression. Finally the course will cover inferential statistics, where we will learn how to use samples to draw conclusions about populations, specifically we will be learning chi-square, t-tests, and ANOVA hypothesis testing for this purpose. Course Requirements and Grading Class and lab attendance are essential in order to pass this course, failure to attend either will result in a lower grade. To encourage class attendance there will be several unannounced (but hinted at) quizzes throughout the semester. These quizzes may not be made up; however I will drop your lowest quiz score. There will be four exams including the final exam, which is not comprehensive however the material builds on itself so it is important to understand the concepts as the semester progresses. Prior approval is required to miss an exam and will only be granted in extreme cases. This course includes a lab that you need to attend once a week for 30 minutes to an hour depending on the schedule (there are several labs scheduled per week). There will be homework problems for each chapter provided on the course website, these must be completed and turned in one week after each chapter is completed (I will inform you in class more specifically when these assignments are due). All homework however must be completed before each exam so that is one chapter is not completed a week before the exam thathomework will still be due before the exam. Late homework will not be accepted although you may miss one assignment without penalty. Homework will not be graded for correctness, only completion and the answers to the homework are also provided on the course website. Your final grade is based on labs (15%), homework (15%), quizzes (20%), and exams (50%). Be sure to contact me immediately if you feel like you are struggling, waiting till the end of the course to ask for help or the day before an exam it might be too late. This syllabus is not a contract, and is subject to change based on course needs. Texts Frankfort-Nachmias, C. and A. Leon-Guerrero. 2005. Statistics for a Diverse Society. Fourth Edition. Thousand Oaks, California: Pine Forge Press. Kentor, Jeffrey. 2004. Exploring Social Inequality with Statistics. Thompson Publishing. Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) The University of Utah seeks to provide equal access to its programs, services and activities for people with disabilities. If you need accommodations in the class, reasonable prior notice is needed to be given to the Center for Disability Services, 162 Olpin Union Building, 581-5020 (V/TDD). CDS will work with you and the instructor to make arrangements for accommodations. All written information in the course can be made available in alternative format with prior notification to the Center for Disability Services. Academic Misconduct Don’t cheat. The Lab The Lab is in BEHS 101. Labs are taught on Wednesdays 10:00 till 11:00 am and 12:30 till 1:30 pm. You are required to sign up and attend one of these two sessions every week (unless noted otherwise), check schedule and course website for announcements for changes to lab or class schedule. Please come to the lab section that you have signed up for unless you get permission from the instructor. There are 10 lab exercises to be completed throughout the semester. They are contained in the lab manual Exploring Social Inequality with Statistics, which is available in the bookstore. This includes SPSS software. Yes, you may complete the labs on your own and email them to the instructor by the Friday of the week they are due. Please however attend the first lab which is an introduction to the software and data sets you will be using. The data sets are located on the course website under the “labs” link on the left hand side; they should open into SPSS automatically. Each lab is worth 5 points. More information will be provided during the first lab meeting.SOC 3112-020 Spring 2009 Class Schedule DATE CHAPTERS End Time Jan 12 Q (1,2) due 01/16 Introduction to Course Chapter 1 Break Chapter 2 Chapter 4 – mode, median 6:30 7:10 7:25 8:15 8:45 Jan 19 Martin Luther King Jr. Day –No Class Jan 24 HW 1,2 Lab 1 – intro, ex. 1 Chapter 4 – mean, distributions Chapter 5 –Range, IQR, Break Chapter 5 – Variance, S.D., IQV 6:50 7:40 7:55 8:45 Jan 26 Review in class Break Exam I - Descriptive Statistics 7:00 7:15 7:15-8:45 Feb 2 HW 4,5 Lab 2 – ex. 2, 3 Chapter 6 – Cross Tabulation Break Chapter 6 – Types of Relationships In Class Exercise Pass Back Exam 7:00 7:15 8:15 8:45 8:40 Feb 9 HW 6 Chapter 7 – Lambda Break Chapter 7 – Gamma Chapter 8 – Regression Line 7:00 7:15 8:15 8:45 Feb 16 President’s Day –No Class Feb 23 HW 7 Lab 3 - ex. 4, 5 Chapter 8 – Measures of Association Break Exam II - Bivariate Relationships 7:00 7:15 7:15-8:45 Mar 2 HW 8 Chapter 9 - The Normal Distribution Break In Class Exercise Pass Back Exam 7:30 7:45 8:30 8:45Mar 9 HW 9 Q (9,10) due 3/13 Chapter 10 – Sampling Break In Class Exercise – create list of terms 7:30 7:45 8:45 Mar 16 Spring Break – no class Mar 23 HW 10 Chapter 11 – CI for Means Break Chapter 11 – CI for Proportions In Class Exercise 7:00 7:15 8:00 8:45 Mar 30 HW 11 Lab4 -- ex. 6, 7 Review in class Break Exam III - Inferential Statistics 7:00