ECO 250 – Economics and Business Statistics I
Fall 2014
MWF 11:00-11:50PM
Bryan 122
Instructor
Name:
Email:
Office:
Office Hours:
Joshua Price
jlprice4@uncg.edu
Bryan 467
Monday and Wednesday from 1:00–2:30 PM
By appointment
Teaching Assistants
Name:
Email:
Office:
Office Hours:
Robert Dekerlegand
rsdekerl@uncg.edu
Bryan 451
Tuesday from 2:00–3:00 PM
Jonathan Norris
jlnorri3@uncg.edu
Bryan 444
Tuesday from 8:00–9:00 AM
Course Objectives
By the end of the semester, you should be able to:
1. Calculate and interpret common measures of central tendency and dispersion.
2. Use probabilities and probability distributions to assess the likelihood of events.
3. Estimate parameters of common discrete and continuous probability distributions.
4. Understand sampling, sampling distributions and the Central Limit Theorem.
5. Calculate and interpret confidence intervals for population means.
6. Perform hypothesis tests for population means and understand the consequences of errors in
tests.
In addition to the above, an important objective of this class is to learn to use Microsoft Excel to
do statistical analysis. It is assumed that you have good spreadsheet skills from ISM 110
or its equivalent.
Course Materials
Required
Textbook
Business Statistics by Robert A. Donnelly, Jr.
The textbook is REQUIRED. Custom textbooks (containing only the chapters
covered in this course) are available from the UNCG bookstore for $148.20. These
come packaged with the required student access code for MyStatLab (see below).
Alternatively, you can buy the eText and student access code for $91.30 through
http://pearsonmylab.com/. If you are waiting for financial aid and cannot pay
immediately, you can get temporary access without payment for 17 days.
MyStatLab All students are REQUIRED to register for MyStatLab through
http://pearsonmylab.com/.
MyStatLab is an online homework management system. Homework assignment and submission will occur through this
account. Registration instructions are posted on Blackboard under the Syllabus
link. To register, you will need a:
• course id (price34055)
• student access code.
Attendance
You are allowed to miss at most 4 classes during the semester. After 4 missed classes, I will deduct
3 percentage points from your course grade for each class you miss. I reserve the right to count you
as absent if you are late to class.
Homework Assignments
There will be 7 homework assignments. Homework assignments will be submitted electronically in
MyStatLab. If you do not complete a homework assignment on time, you will be assigned a grade
of zero. Homework assignments will not be accepted late for any reason! The lowest
homework grade will be dropped. You may work together on the homework assignments.
Now you try! Questions
Once I work a Your Turn question in class, you will be responsible for completing the corresponding
Now you try! question and turning it in at the start of the next class.
There are 34 Now you try! questions throughout the course. These questions will be graded on
3-point scale (i.e., you will receive either 0, 1, or 2 points). Your grade for these will be determined
by dividing the total points received on all questions by 55.
Example By the end of the course, you turned in 30 questions. Half of these questions earned
2 points each, and the remaining half earned 1 point each. This results in 45 total points. Your
grade for the Now you try! questions is
45
= 81.82%
55
2
Excel Projects
There are 3 Excel projects. Due dates are listed on the last page. Put them into your calendar
immediately because these projects will not be accepted late for any reason. Excel projects
will be submitted through Blackboard. You are encouraged to work together on these projects, but
you must submit your own work. Details about each project will be available on Blackboard.
Exams
There are 3 exams: two midterms and a final exam. The exam dates are listed on the last day. Put
them in your calendar immediately because there are no makeup exams and very few acceptable
excuses for missing one. Acceptable excuses include a death in the family, a University-sponsored
event or excursion, or a serious illness documented by a doctor. Acceptable excuses must be
approved before the scheduled exam date. Exams are all closed-book, closed-note, and closedfriend/neighbor. You may bring a calculator to the exam; you may not use your cell phones as a
calculator.
Cheating on exams will not be tolerated. If you cheat on an exam, I will give you an F for the
course, and I will recommend you be expelled from UNCG.
Grade
Your average for the course will be determined as follows:
Now you try! Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10%
Homework Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15%
Excel Project 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5%
Excel Project 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5%
Excel Project 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5%
Exam 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15%
Exam 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20%
Final Exam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25%
A final letter grade will be assigned based on the following scale:
A+ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97% and above
A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . At least 93% but less than 97%
A− . . . . . . . . . . . . . At least 90% but less than 93%
B+ . . . . . . . . . . . . . At least 87% but less than 90%
B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . At least 83% but less than 87%
B− . . . . . . . . . . . . . At least 80% but less than 83%
C+ . . . . . . . . . . . . . At least 77% but less than 80%
C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . At least 73% but less than 77%
C− . . . . . . . . . . . . . At least 70% but less than 73%
D+ . . . . . . . . . . . . . At least 67% but less than 70%
D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .At least 63% but less than 67%
D− . . . . . . . . . . . . . At least 60% but less than 63%
F . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Less than 60%
3
Academic Integrity Policy
Students are expected to know and abide by the Honor Code in all matters pertaining to this course.
Violations of this code will be pursued in accordance with the code. The link to UNCGs academic
integrity policy is:
http://academicintegrity.uncg.edu/complete/.
Faculty and Student Guidelines
Please familiarize yourself with the Bryan Schools Faculty and Student Guidelines. These guidelines
establish principles and expectations for the administration, faculty, staff, and students of the Bryan
School of Business and Economics. The link for this document is
http://www.uncg.edu/bae/faculty student guidelines.pdf.
Additional Requests
• Do not talk to your neighbors during class. It distracts the students around you, and it
distracts me. It will not be tolerated. If you talk during class I reserve the right to ask
you to leave the room.
• I know about the parking problems on campus and am sympathetic, but I do request that
you be on time.
• Please make sure that all cell phones are turned off during lecture. DO NOT answer calls/text
messages during class. If I see you texting I reserve the right to ask you to leave the room.
• I encourage you to work together on assignments, although every student is responsible for
submitting his/her own answers to each graded assignment in order to receive credit.
• When you begin to feel lost, BE PROACTIVE!! I am more than happy to answer questions
during lecture. If you have a question, then someone else has the same question.
4
Important Dates
Date
Description
Time
August 18
Classes Begin
August 25
Homework 1 Due
September 1
Labor Day holiday
(NO CLASS)
September 8
Homework 2 Due
11:59 PM
September 22
Homework 3 Due
11:59 PM
September 24
Excel Project 1 Due
11:55 PM
September 26
Exam 1
11:00 AM
11:59 PM
October 10
Last day to drop without
academic penalty
October 13
Fall Break
(NO CLASS)
October 15
Homework 4 Due
11:59 PM
October 27
Homework 5 Due
11:59 PM
October 29
Excel Project 2 Due
11:55 PM
October 31
Exam 2
11:00 AM
November 17
Homework 6 Due
11:59 PM
November 26, 28
Thanksgiving holiday
(NO CLASS)
December 1
Homework 7 Due
Excel Project 3 Due
December 2
Reading Day
December 8
Final Exam
5
11:59 PM
11:55 PM
Noon–3 PM