Welcome to the STAtistics Zone

(AP Statistics, Period B)
Web address shortcut for this page: www.modd.net/56stat

Are you nervous when you see NCWEE? concerned when you see CIRC? perturbed when you see PBC? Visit Mr. Hansen’s fabled abbreviations page to make sense of those cryptic markings you see on your papers.

 

Schedule at a Glance (see archives for older entries)
Written assignments should follow the HW guidelines.

 

T 5/16/06

HW due: Work with your study buddy for at least 15 minutes outside of class. If you do not have a study buddy, come to Math Lab Monday afternoon to work with me. Keep a written time log.

The students who have already passed the Must-Pass Quiz (namely, Alex, Andrew B., Christian, Glenn, Henry, John, and Michael M.) did not get to that point by chance alone. I am fairly confident that I did not commit a Type I error!

 

W 5/17/06

First half: Mr. Joe Morris of the MITRE Corporation will speak on the history of computers. This is a fascinating talk, covering many of the technologies that we take for granted today.

Second half: The Must-Pass Quiz continues.

 

Th 5/18/06

HW due: Read Lessons from the Pentagon if you have not already done so. Then, as you did earlier in the week, work with a study buddy (either as a person seeking help, or as a person providing help) for at least 15 minutes outside of class, and keep a time log of your efforts. Students who still need help getting over the hurdle are Ben, Clay, Chris, Greg, Jeffrey, Kenny, Paul, and Will.

Note: Today’s class will be held from 9:45 to 10:25, after assembly.

 

F 5/19/06

Last day of class. I know many of you still have a cut remaining, but it would mean a lot to me if you would come to class today. I will waive the exam requirement if 100% of students pass the Must-Pass Quiz by the end of the day Monday, May 22. (That is an extension because of the late start we had to yesterday’s class.)

The period today is full length, because we had the Friday schedule yesterday.

 

M 5/22/06

. . . and there was much mirth and merriment throughout the Close. All 17 students have now passed the Must-Pass Quiz! Check out the tote board. This means, per our agreement, that the final exam requirement is waived for everyone.

Thanks, everyone, for a great, memorable year. See you on Prize Day!

 

 

Essential Links:
-- College Board: AP Statistics Course Description
-- Our textbook’s site has online quizzes and some useful links
-- RVLS (Rice Virtual Lab in Statistics): One of the best sites anywhere for statistics! Here you’ll find a complete college statistics course (complete with clickable glossary and great case studies), simulations, and some excellent analysis tools.
-- Virtual Laboratories in Probability and Statistics (University of Alabama at Huntsville)
-- StatCrunch 3.0 (formerly WebStat): An on-line statistical computing package (requires Java)
-- How to study statistics (written by a professor at the University of Central Florida, but the ideas are valid for our class)
-- Eric Weisstein’s World of Mathematics: a monstrously huge hyperlinked reference

TI-83 Links:
--
CINT (converts confidence interval from interval notation to the more convenient “estimate ± m.o.e.” format)
-- INVT (inverse t) program written by Mr. Hansen and the Class of 1999
-- CHISQGOF (Chi-Square Goodness of Fit) program also written by Mr. Hansen and the Class of 1999
-- CSDELUXE (Chi-Square Deluxe): combines CHISQGOF and STAT TESTS C into one package; written by Mr. Hansen for the Class of 2003
-- Modifications to SCATRBOX program so that it returns the LSRL equation at the end (follow-on to a stat teacher workshop I attended on 12/5/2001)
-- David Pachner’s statistical test and confidence interval files for the TI-83 (added 4/16/2001; not reviewed by Mr. Hansen for accuracy)
-- TI-83 programs from Texas Instruments

Philosophical Links:
-- In praise of Bayes: a very readable overview of the tension between the standard (“frequentist”) approach to probability and the Bayesian view

Controversial Links:
-- Does an elite college really pay? Article addresses the issue of whether you would do better financially if you simply invested the difference in tuition price.

Fun Links:
-- Least squares regression game (requires Java): After the Java applet loads, click the “?” icon in lower right corner for instructions.
-- Guessing correlation coefficients by eye
-- Another correlation game (takes longer to load, but allows you to achieve fame if you score in the top 20 worldwide)
-- Photos from our 5/20/99 field trip to the National Cryptologic Museum at the NSA
-- Huge Internet gallery of statistics jokes (warning: many are excellent, but some are dangerously lame)
-- Average age at death for rock stars is 36.9 (vs. 75.8 for the overall population). . . this site is religiously oriented (and apparently sincere), but the reasoning process is seriously flawed. Can you find the problem?
-- Chance Database Welcome Page (this is the link cited in the 4/4/99 Washington Post Unconventional Wiz column)
-- Accident statistics (the taxicab problem)
-- Psychological probability quiz
-- Marilyn is Wrong! (a truly great site, even though it doesn’t seem to include Dr. Morse’s response to Marilyn yet)
-- Male sweat may be good for women’s health (a scholarly article with p- and t-values)
-- Lying with statistics
-- One of the biggest marketing blunders of all time: the New Coke fiasco
-- More fun links on Mr. Hansen’s home page

Serious Links (click here)

Extra Credit (due date 4/1/2006 for poster, 4/15/2006 for project):
-- Please speak to me if you wish to enter the ASA (American Statistical Association) poster or project competition

Group Projects (1998 onward):
Exploratory Data Analysis
-- Assignment (2005-06)
-- Results (1998-99)
-- Results (1999-2000)
-- Results (2000-01)
-- Results (2005-06)
Opinion Survey
-- Assignment (2000-01)
-- Results (1999-2000)
-- Results (2000-01)
Experimental Design and Execution
-- Assignment (2000-01)
-- Results (1998-99)
-- Results (2000-01)
Pairs Project on How to Lie With Statistics and P-value Calculations
-- Assignment (2000-01)
-- List of Partners (2000-01)
Critique of a Scientific Article
-- Assignment
AP Review
-- D period (1998-99)
-- F period (1998-99)

Test #1 (Chapters 1-2 plus §3.1 of new textbook), Sept. 2000:
-- Test #1

Old Test #1 (Introduction through Section 2.2 of old textbook):
--
Study guide
-- Test #1D--has a residual plot question not found in the F period version
-- Test #1F

Test #2, Oct. 1998:
-- Mr. Hansen’s study guide
-- Eric Love’s study guide (1/12/1999 revised version)
-- Test #2 (merged version, with comments)

Test #3 (Chapter 5) for 1999-2000
-- Answers to practice test (the practice test was handed out in hard copy form on 11/15/1999)
-- Take-home portion distributed 11/16/1999, due 11/17/1999

Old Test #3 (Chapter 4 of old textbook):
-- Study guide
-- Test #3 (merged version)
-- Answer key

Test #4 (Sections 5.1, 5.2, 6.1 of old textbook):
-- Study guide
-- Test #4D
-- Test #4F

Test #4 (Chapters 7 and 8 of new textbook: random variables, binomial & geometric distributions):
-- Actual test, 1/29/2004

Test #5 (Sections 6.2, 6.3, 7.1 of old textbook):
-- Study guide
-- Practice test
-- Answer key for practice test (incl. correction to #18 suggested by C. Muller)
-- Test #5 (merged version)

Test #5 (Sections 7.2 through 9.1 of new textbook):
-- Actual test, 2/6/2002

Test #6 (Sections 7.1-7.3 of old textbook):
-- Practice test
-- Answer key for practice test
-- Test #6D, with answer key

Test #6 (Chapters 9 and 10 of new textbook):
-- Actual test, 3/7/2002

Test #7 (Sections 8.1-8.3 of old textbook, plus Chi-Square GOF):
-- Answer key for sample test problems
-- In-class portion
-- Take-home portion

Test #8 (Section 9.1 of old textbook, plus Geometric Probability Distributions):
-- Take-home test due Wednesday 4/28/1999
-- Answer key (not yet released)

AP Exam Review
-- Real sample AP questions from the College Board
-- TI-83 Function Summary
-- TI-83 STAT TESTS Summary, including the assumptions you need to check
-- PHA(S)TPC procedures, a systematic way of performing statistical tests and calculating confidence intervals
-- LSRL Top Ten
-- Normal vs. Binomial: What are the hallmarks and differences? (Includes many example problems, with solutions.)
-- Formula sheet markup guide

Question of the day: 12/15/1998

Preview of quiz for Wednesday, 11/18/1998


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Last updated: 22 May 2006