Course Syllabus: Stat 500 Spring 2010
Instructor:
Dr. Mosuk Chow
Office: 315 Thomas
Phone: 863-8128 (e-mail: mchow@stat.psu.edu)
Office Hours: Tues 2:00 - 3:30pm, Thur 1:00-2:30pm
or by appointment
Grader information: (will be announced on the course ANGEL site)
Aim:
The course is an introduction to the basic concepts and methods of applied
statistics. It is intended for graduate students who either have no prior statistics courses
(math skills assumed), or who wish to review the fundamentals before taking additional
500 level Statistics courses.
Textbook: An Introduction to Statistical Methods and Data Analysis by R. Lyman Ott
and Michael Longnecker ( 6th edition) bundled with Minitab 14 student version.
International Thompson Publishing. ISBN: 9781111116318. Available at Penn State
bookstore. The textbook is on reserve in Physical and Math Science Library (PAMS) at
201 Davey Lab. Minitab is also available in the computer labs on campus. (5 th edition
of the textbook can also be used.)
Grades:
Homeworks
20 % (submit to dropboxes on ANGEL site)
Midterms:
50 % (in class 6:00- 6:50pm on March 1 and March 29)
location will be announced
Project:
5 % ( project due April 27)
Final Exam:
25 % (date will be announced)
Grading (tentatively): Course grades in each of the nine categories will be tentatively
awarded based on the following lower bounds:
F
0
D
60
C
70
C+
77
B80
B
83
B+
87
A90
A
93
Exams: Midterm exams and final will be closed book and comprehensive. More focus
will be given to material not covered in the prior exams. For midterm exams, you will be
allowed to bring in a formula sheet made up by yourself. This sheet may comprise of a 2sided 8.5x11 inches sheets. For final exam, you can bring two 2-sided 8.5x11 inches
sheets. No early or late exams will be allowed without a legitimate excuse.
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Home works: Homeworks are to be submitted to their respective dropboxes by the due
day. You must show all work on the homework problems to get full credit. Doing the
homework promptly and carefully is necessary for learning the material. A reasonable
amount of collaboration is allowed on homework. However, each student must turn in his
or her own written work which reflects his or her own individual understanding of the
material. Late home works will have 20% off for each day late. Note that the lowest
homework score will be dropped.
Solutions: Solutions for the homework assignments will be posted with a link to it from
the homepage of Stat500.
Project: You will be given a data set and you will be asked to employ techniques you
have learned throughout this course to analyze the data set. One final team project will be
assigned. Each team will consist of two to three students.
Discussion: On our ANGEL site, there are Discussion Forums. You can post questions
there on course materials, homeworks, etc. All of you are encouraged to answer the
questions or to make comments.
Academic Integrity: All Penn State and Eberly College of Science policies regarding
academic integrity apply to this course. See
http://www.science.psu.edu/academic/Integrity/index.html
Course Objectives
Upon completion of this course you will:




Appreciate and understand the role of statistics in your field.
Develop an ability to apply appropriate statistical methods to summarize and
analyze data for some of the more routine experimental settings.
Make sense of data and be able to report the results in appropriate table or
statistical terms for inclusion in your thesis or paper.
Interpret results from various computer packages (Minitab, SPSS, SAS) and be
able to use Minitab to perform appropriate statistical techniques.
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Getting Started
Time frame: January 11, 2010 - January 15, 2010
Assignments:


Complete the steps outlined in the Welcome Letter from
your instructor (sent to you by Student Services with
other course introductory materials) to acquaint yourself
with the course environment.
Complete the activities in the Getting Started folder (see
the Lessons tab) by Jan 15
Lesson 1: An overview of Statistics, gathering data and graphical methods,
introduction to Minitab
Time frame: January 11, 2010 - January 20, 2010
Assignments:

Work on Homework 1 (due January 20)
Lesson 2: Summarizing data: measures of central tendency and measures
of variability, box plot
Time frame: January 20, 2010 - January 27, 2010
Assignments:

Work on Homework 2 (due January 27)
Lesson 3: Probabilities, conditional probability and independence, types of
variables and probability distributions
Time frame: January 27, 2010 - February 3, 2010
Assignments:

Work on Homework 3 (due February 3)
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Lesson 4: Binomial distribution and normal distribution
Time frame: February 3, 2010 - February 10, 2010
Assignments:

Work on Homework 4 (due February 10)
Lesson 5: Sampling distribution and central limit theorem
Time frame: February 10, 2010 - February 17, 2010
Assignments:

Work on Homework 5 (due February 17)
Lesson 6: Introduction to inferences, confidence interval for population
proportion, margin of error and sample size computation
Time frame: February 17, 2010 - February 24, 2010
Assignments:

Work on Homework 6 (due February 24)
Midterm 1
Time frame: 6:00 – 6:50 pm, March 1, 2010

location will be announced.
Lesson 7: Confidence interval for population mean when population
standard deviation is unknown, t-distribution, choosing the sample size for
estimating the population mean
Time frame: February 24, 2010 - March 4, 2010
Assignments:

Work on Homework 7 (due March 4)
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Lesson 8: Hypothesis testing, type I and type II error, statistical test for
population proportion, p-value approach to hypothesis testing
Time frame: March 4, 2010 - March 17, 2010
Assignments:

Work on Homework 8 (due March 17)
Lesson 9: Statistical test for using rejection region approach, statistical test
for population mean, how to use confidence interval to draw conclusion
about two sided test, power and sample sizes
Time frame: March 17, – March 24, 2010
Assignments:

Work on Homework 9 (due March 24)
Midterm 2
Time frame: 6:00 – 6:50 pm, March 29, 2010

location will be announced
Lesson 10: Comparing two population means, independent samples versus
paired data, two sample t-test, paired t-test
Time frame: March 24 – April 7, 2010
Assignments:

Work on Homework 10 (due April 7)
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Project (posted April 1)
Time frame: April 1 – April 27, 2010
Assignments:

Due April 27
Lesson 11: Comparing two population proportions, contingency table and
Chi-square test of independence, comparing two population variances
Time frame: April 7, 2010 - April 14, 2010
Assignments:

Work on Homework 11 (due April 14)
Lesson 12: Simple linear regression, correlation, inferences for simple
linear regression
Time frame: April 14, 2010 - April 21, 2010
Assignments:

Work on – Homework 12 (due April 21)
Lesson 13: Multiple regression, one-way ANOVA and two-way ANOVA
[Note: The details in Lesson 13 will not be required for the final exam.]
Time frame: April 21, 2010 - April 28, 2010
Assignments:

Work on – Homework 13 (no need to submit)
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Lesson 14 - Summary: To determine what statistical methods to use for
specific situations, summary and review
Time frame: April 21, 2010 – April 30, 2010
Assignments:



Review material learned in STAT 500
Work on “to choose statistical techniques”
Project - due April 27
The instructor will offer bonus points if you find mistakes in any of the course content
dealing with statistical calculation. These bonus points will improve your grade in
marginal cases.
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