ECO 250 – Economics and Business Statistics I
Spring 2014
MWF 12:00-12:50PM
Bryan 105
Instructor
Name:
Email:
Office:
Office Hours:
Joshua Price
jlprice4@uncg.edu
Bryan 447
Wednesday from 2:00-3:30pm
Thursday from 1:00-3:00pm
Teaching Assistant
Name:
Email:
Office:
Office Hours:
Robert Dekerlegand
rsdekerl@uncg.edu
Bryan 103
Tuesday from 1:00-3:00pm
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 (price14106)
• student access code.
ResponseWare
License
ResponseWare is an online clicker system and is REQUIRED. You can purchase a license card from the bookstore, or you can purchase the license online.
To purchase it online, go to https://store.turningtechnologies.com/, and use
the following school code: uNCG4. Enter the code exactly as shown (lower
case ‘u,’ upper case ‘NCG’).
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.
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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%
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Exams
There are 3 exams: two midterms and a final exam. The exam dates are listed in the schedule
below. 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 Universitysponsored 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
closed-friend/neighbor. You may bring a calculator to the exam; you may not use your cell phones
as a calculator.
Exams consist of two parts: an Excel project and an in-class, pen-and-paper portion. Each exam
will be worth 100 points. The Excel projects will be worth 50 points each, and the pen-and-paper
portions will be worth 50 points each. Details about the projects will be provided two weeks prior
to the exam date. Projects will be due by 11:59pm the day of the exam.
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.
Extra Credit
There are three ways to earn extra credit.
1. ResponseWare: Since some of these questions will be extra credit, your average on these
questions can be greater 100.
2. Now you try! Questions: Since you can earn up to 68 points, your average on these
questions can be greater 100.
3. MyStatLab: In addition to homework assignments, there are extra credit sets. For each
correct response you will receive 0.25 points toward a corresponding exam (e.g., points earned
on extra credits 1-3 will be added to Exam #1).
Grade
Your average for the course will be determined as follows:
Homework Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15%
Now you try! Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10%
ResponseWare Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10%
Exam 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15%
Exam 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20%
Final Exam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30%
A final letter grade will be assigned based on the following scale:
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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%
Student Study Program
You have the opportunity to participate in the Student Study Program (SSP), one of the four
programs housed in the Student Success Center located in the McIver Building. SSP is designed to
offer additional academic support for students enrolled in historically challenging classes that have
high drop, failure, and/or withdrawal rates.
The purpose of SSP is to offer students the opportunity to form collaborative study groups of up
to 4 of their peers. Students will be matched by the program coordinator with other students in the
same course and section. To sign up or to learn more about SSP, go to http://success.uncg.edu/ssp/.
If you have further questions, you may also contact the Coordinator of the Student Study Program,
Laura Huhn, at ssp@uncg.edu.
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.
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• 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.
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Course Schedule
Week #
∗
Monday
Wednesday
Friday
1
January 13
Chapters 1 & 2
January 15
Chapters 1 & 2
January 17
Chapter 3
2
January 20
NO CLASS
January 22
Chapter 3
Homework #1 due
January 24
Chapter 3
3
January 27
Begin ResponseWare
January 29
January 31
4
February 3
Homework #2 due
February 5
February 7
Project #1 assigned
5
February 10
February 12
February 14
6
February 17
Homework #3 due
February 19
February 21
Exam #1
7
February 24
February 26
February 28
8
March 3
March 5
March 7
9
March 10
SPRING BREAK
March 12
SPRING BREAK
March 14
SPRING BREAK
10
March 17
Homework #4 due
March 19
Project #2 assigned
March 21
11
March 24
March 26
March 28
Homework #5
12
March 31
April 2
Exam #2
April 4
13
April 7
April 9
April 11
14
April 14
April 16
Homework #6 due
Final Project assigned
April 18
NO CLASS
15
April 21
April 23
April 25
16
April 28
April 29 ∗
Homework #7 due
May 2
Final Exam
(12:00pm - 3pm)
April 29 is actually a Tuesday, but the University will follow a Friday schedule.
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