Math 231, Statistics II (version stored in Blackboard is the official up to date version)
Dr. Bill Harper, Mathematical Sciences, Towers Hall, room 139, 823-1417, WHarper@Otterbein.edu,
http://faculty.otterbein.edu/WHarper/, helpful info may be found in Blackboard.
Office hours: See my schedule page of the above web page, or by appointment. Feel free to drop in any time I am there.
Email is the best way to reach me. If you are wondering what to call me try Bill, Dr. Harper, or Professor Harper – no
preference on these, but Mr. Harper makes me feel old.
The syllabus passed out at the start of the term is our beginning syllabus and will likely evolve over time without notice. The
official version of the syllabus at any point in time will be stored in Blackboard.
Course Description: Statistics II is a continuation of Statistics I. After some review of Stats I, we begin covering inference
about both one and two sample variances (ch 10). Subsequent chapters use these relationship to study basic design of
experiments using analysis of variance (ch 11) regression (chs 12, 13), and the analysis of categorical data (ch 14). We close
the book with nonparametric statistics (ch 15) getting away from the assumption of normality. To pass the course with a
respectable grade requires reading textbook and doing numerous homework problems on a regular basis.
You are expected to read the assigned sections prior to the lecture. If things are not clear to you, re-read the text as often as
necessary, talk to your classmates, view both the PowerPoint and Minitab based videos & talk to me - don't delay. Make sure
you keep up with your data portfolio (described more below).
While we will meet face to face 2 days per week, the 3rd day per week has been replaced by work & quizzes you will do on
your own time. There are time cut-offs that will evolve during the course for each chapter web quiz. Each Blackboard
chapter quiz should be taken twice even if you do well the 1st time. Each quiz comes from a random selection from a test
bank that I constructed – if there are issues with it, let me know so I can improve it. Only your highest chapter quiz will be
used in Blackboard to compute your course grade. The quizzes will cover subjects from the book including possibly material
we have not covered together. So RTFB in one translation is Read the Fabulous Book. Start early on each chapter quiz so
that you can learn, get better, and beat the final deadline for each chapter quiz.
PowerPoint and Minitab files are stored in Blackboard for your learning. There are also numerous videos based either on
PowerPoint or Minitab placed into Blackboard. You are expected to view all of them and learn from them as they may
include material not covered in lecture. This may entail multiple viewings. These will help with the quizzes as well.
Homework is not collected. Solutions to the odd numbered problems are in the back of the text. A full set of solution files
for the 13th ed book is in Blackboard with considerable detail on each problem. You must solve the homework problems on
your own to master this material and do well in this course. This cannot be overemphasized – doing homework is a key to
passing this course gracefully. Also make sure you work through and understand the examples given in the body of each
section.
Course Grades: 92-100 for an A, 90-91 for an A-, 88-89 for a B+, 82-87 for B, 80-81 for a B-, 78-79 for a C+, 72-77 for a
C, 70-71 for a C-, 68-69 for a D+, 60-67 for a D, and F for < 60. Tests are comprehensive and may include anything covered
thus far in the class or in the assigned parts of the text. The midterm is 35% of your grade, quizzes 30%, data portfolio 15%,
and final 20%. IF YOU MISS THE MIDTERM FOR ANY REASON, THERE ARE NO RE-TAKES AND YOUR
FINAL WILL BE USED TO GET YOUR MIDTERM SCORE. For future Stats II classes under semesters, the
weighting scheme will be 25% for both final and midterm (total of 50%), 20% data portfolio, and 30% web quizzes.
Data Portfolio: You must form data portfolio teams as early as possible in the term. These portfolios require you to collect
data on your own (surveys, web, etc.); therefore, you must get it together in sufficient time to produce a nice report. A nice
report results in a good score for it, a thrown together piece gets nil. Be thoughtful and do a good job. Contact me as
necessary on this. You may work with 2-4 others on these projects. Your write-ups must be in Microsoft Word sent via
email to me. All team members must have their full names on page 1 (in alphabetic order based on last name) of the report.
For those of you not living on or near campus, you can download the full Minitab for about $30 for a semester, if desired
though this is not necessary. Details are in Blackboard in the Announcement section. I expect you to personally collect data
to help your team, analyze your data, write up where you got the data, and have a nice understandable flow in good English.
You do not need to show you raw data but are expected to paste in output as helpful from Minitab, SPSS, or other software.
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Book: Introduction to Probability & Statistics, 13th Ed., William Mendenhall, Robert J. Beaver Barbara M. Beaver,
Thomson. You may get by easily with the earlier 12th edition (minimal differences in a few homework problems).
PowerPoint files for each chapter may be found in Blackboard as well as complete solution files.
Course Objectives:
1. Gain an appreciation of more advanced statistical methods.
2. Master data analysis techniques.
3. Learn applications with a statistical package such as Minitab.
Academic Misconduct: Any form of unauthorized assistance (such copying from another) on graded work will result in a
grade of zero and a report to the Academic Dean. A second offense will result in a grade of F for the class and referral to the
judicial system.
Attendance: Class attendance is expected. Students are completely responsible for all material and announcements given in
class. Repeated non-excused absences will not help your grade. When in class, participate. If you miss, review the web
videos for an overview of the subject as well as working with fellow classmates.
Policy for Student participation in co-curricular activities: Involvement with sports/theatre and other activities that result
in missing classes require that you make any necessary arrangements to keep you current with the class.
Tentative Semester Schedule(For all chapters, do lots of problems.)
Review of Stats I material. Start new material with Chapter 10, sections 10.6-10.8 chi-square
distribution for a single population variance and the F distribution for two population variances.
Chapter 11, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)
Chapters 12-13, Linear Regression and Correlation, Multiple Regression
Chapter 14, Applications of the Chi-Square Distribution: Goodness of fit, Contingency tables
Chapter 15, Nonparametric Statistics
Data Portfolio help
See Otterbein’s final schedule posted on the web. This might be a take-home exam.
Depression: We all get depressed now & then. You should not feel weird if it happens to you, BUT try to do something about it if possible.
Talk to others. Seek help. Otterbein has free counseling services – contact the student health center for details.
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