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W 9/6/06
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First
day of class.
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Th 9/7/06
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Quiz (10 pts.) on the alphabet.
Double HW due (4 pts. each):
1. Send me an e-mail listing the four principal topic areas of AP Statistics.
Only a brief list is required; no explanations are needed. Remember to begin
your subject line with a double underscore and to sign your name at the end
of your e-mail. I will ignore any e-mail that is missing the proper subject
or that is unsigned. Important: If you have more than
one e-mail address, send your message from the location that you check most
frequently.
2. View my June 2006 Cause and Effect
slides. Brief reading notes are required. Read the HW
guidelines to earn full credit. Important: Do not step through the
slides by using your mouse to click on the “previous slide” and “next slide”
buttons in the lower right corner of your screen. Instead, use the right and
left arrow buttons on your keyboard. (That way, you will see the bar graphs
that show how the SPS students responded to each slide that posed a
question.)
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F 9/8/06
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Double HW due (4 pts. each):
1. Bring in a recent newspaper or magazine clipping (not from a Web source)
in which the science of statistics is at the crux of the article. For
example, an article discussing whether the calculation methodology for CPI
(consumer price index) needs to be updated would be a good one. Do not bring
in an article that merely cites statistics, since many articles would meet
that criterion. The key idea is that the statistics must be at the heart of
some debate, discussion, or controversy.
2. Start reading pp. 1-48 in your textbook. You will probably not finish
tonight, but just get as far as you can. Keep reading notes, as always.
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M 9/11/06
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HW due: Finish reading pp. 1-48.
Open-Note Quiz (10 pts.) will
cover the textbook reading, everything discussed in class up to this point,
and some material from the SPS briefing. You will be permitted to use your handwritten notes during the quiz (no
computer printouts). There will be some time for Q & A before the quiz.
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T 9/12/06
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HW due: pp. 48-51 #1.38, 39, 41, 43, 44, and the following
fill-in-the-blank exercise:
Mean and median are measures of __________ __________ , while s.d. and
__________ are measures of __________ . Of these four, the resistant measures
are __________ and __________ .
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W 9/13/06
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HW due: #1.53. In part (a), make both a histogram and a
modified box plot. Also, read the “Quick Study” column in the Tuesday (9/12) Washington Post Health section, page
F6. Handwritten notes are encouraged. There will be an open-notes quiz today
and on many other Wednesdays. (This is a recurring assignment.) This week
there are only 2 studies that are discussed, but often there are 3. If you
have extra time, please also read the longer article on the See Clearly
Method for improving eyesight.
Note: This goes without saying, but
stealing or damaging library materials is an honor offense. Don’t do it.
Spend 5 cents to make a photocopy, or better yet, read the articles and make
good notes for yourself.
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Th 9/14/06
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HW due: Review the SPS
lecture and answer all of the questions that are posed there. For
example, we went through part of the slide that asks which of a number of
bulleted examples are statistics and which are not.
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F 9/15/06
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HW due: Read this
article on idea futures and be prepared to discuss it. (Grade will be based
on participation and/or a short quiz.) Hint:
As with the HW due Wednesday, simply knowing the content of the article is
not sufficient. You need to be able to answer questions that place the
article in context with the other concepts we have been learning and
discussing in class. Your handwritten reading notes (required) may also be
used during the discussion and/or quiz.
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M 9/18/06
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HW due: Read pp. 66-90, including the examples. You may
omit the exercises for now, however.
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T 9/19/06
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HW due: Write p. 81 #2.15, 2.16, 2.17; p. 84 #2.20.
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W 9/20/06
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Washington
Post Quiz. Be
prepared for the possibility that the quiz may include computations using the
empirical rule and/or normalcdf, as discussed recently in class.
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Th 9/21/06
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HW due:
1. Read pp. 90-97.
2. Perform the work in Example 2.10 and leave your calculator set up as
described there. I plan to go around the room, checking to see if everyone
has the screen displays shown in the textbook on pp. 94-95.
3. Write #2.26b. Be sure to transcribe the normal probability plot (a.k.a.
NQP, for normal quantile plot) onto your paper. Put your values in L2
so that they do not overwrite the values you stored in L1 for
Example 2.10.
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F 9/22/06
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HW due:
1. Read pp. 107-115.
2. Write #2.32 (you may use #2.33 as a guide since the answers are in the
back of the book).
3. Write #3.8.
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M 9/25/06
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HW due: Read pp. 117-135 and perform the following
exercise.
Ask 8 actual people to give you their name, age (years and months), and
height (in inches). Record your data in a table with a row for each person.
Try to get at least 4 males and at least 4 females, but if that is not
possible, then get at least 2 of each and 8 or more altogether. For example,
2 males + 6 females would be acceptable. Then make a dual scatterplot (using
the method of #3.9 on pp. 120-121) to show the data for males and females on
the same plot. Use a different symbol for each gender, and transcribe your
scatterplot to your HW paper.
If you are starting this assignment too late on Sunday evening to be able to
call 7 friends, then use yourself, your parents, and anyone else close at
hand, and gather the last few people’s data on Monday morning. You may make
reasonable estimates so that you do not have to spend half an hour calling
people, but use actual people.
Here is an example of what your table should look like:
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Name
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M/F
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Age
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Age (mos. only)
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Height (in.)
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Boris
Barovsky
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M
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16
yrs., 6 mos.
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198
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72
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Clarice
Corbin
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F
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17
yrs., 2 mos.
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206
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68
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Don
Durbin
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M
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18
yrs., 1 mo.
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217
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71
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[etc.]
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You may wish to work through #3.9 for additional practice. However, that is
not required for a grade.
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T 9/26/06
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HW due:
1. Read about Chebyshev’s Theorem (not in
textbook). This should take you about 5 minutes.
2. List 5 or more topics (labeled A, B, C, D, E) that you are confused about.
Make your list very specific. For example, don’t write, “How to analyze
data.” You could write something like, “Topic A: How to determine whether a
distribution is skew right, skew left, or symmetric based on a histogram
and/or statistics.” If you cannot think of 5 things that are confusing to
you, then come up with 5 very specific things that you speculate your
classmates would like to see reviewed or explained in greater depth. This
list should take you only a few minutes, though it may well take longer if
you have not been writing questions in the margins of your reading notes
and/or classroom notes.
3. For each item on your list, find a textbook exercise that uses that skill.
Try to find an odd-numbered problem
that has not already been assigned. That way, you can get additional
practice and can check your answer against the back of the book. If the only
problems you can work on are problems that have already been assigned, then
so be it, but fresh problems will probably help you more.
Important: Use your letters (A, B,
C, etc.) to indicate clearly which problem goes with which topic of
confusion.
4. Attempt to solve each of your 5 problems, showing your work. If the topic
is so difficult for you that you cannot make reasonable progress on the
problem, then trade problems with your classmates and work on problems that
they came up with. If you and several classmates all have the same problem,
making cross-trading impossible, then write 1 or 2 sentences identifying
where the difficulty lies for you, and be sure to raise your hand in class so
that we can start our review with that topic.
Today’s HW grade will be based primarily on the quality of your topics. Vague
topics (e.g., “How to understand Chapter 1”) will not qualify for credit. Be
specific.
In class: Review.
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W 9/27/06
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Test #1. Material covered will be everything discussed in
class, Chebyshev’s Theorem, the SPS slides, and the textbook through p.
135. Regarding the Washington Post,
you are responsible only for this week’s studies (i.e., the newspaper of
Tuesday, Sept. 26).
For today’s test, you may use a single sheet of handwritten notes, maximum
size 8.5 by 11 inches. You may write on both sides of your note sheet. I have
not allowed students to use notes in previous years—we will see how well this
works. Your questions will be somewhat harder than on the September 2000 test.
Chebyshev’s Theorem, which is not covered in
the text, may be on the test. However, it would be a relatively simple
problem. Here is an example:
1. Given: Student scores are distributed with m = 77, s = 10. What fraction of the results are in the
interval [57, 97]?
Solution: Although it is tempting
to say 95%, that would be a mistake. (Remember, we cannot use the Empirical
Rule unless normality is given.) CT says at least 1 – 1/22, or
.75, of the scores lie within ±2 s.d.’s of the mean. Answer: 75% or more.
Suggestion: Try working all the way through the September 2000 test under time
pressure. Warning: Part I, the
terminology section, which should be 14 points of pure gift, usually turns
out to be a place where students miss a great number of points. The actual
questions on your test will be different, of course, and they may be worded
in a less straightforward way. For example, since you will have a note sheet,
I am unlikely to ask for straight recall of the terms and their symbols. You
should be prepared to use the terms and/or symbols in context, perhaps in a
fill-in-the-blank format.
A formula sheet and a z table will
be provided. However, in keeping with AP practice, the important formula z = (x – m)/s will not be provided.
For that formula, you simply have to memorize it or write it on your note
sheet.
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9/28/06
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HW due: Carefully record (to the nearest quarter hour) the
amount of sleep that you had last night. This assignment will be graded both
for completion and for quality of the answer. Write your answer using regular
HW format.
(I often give students a night with no HW following a test. However, I really
want to gather this data set.)
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F 9/29/06
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HW due: Read pp. 137-159. Read and perform all of the
examples except for 3.12 and 3.13. I may check your calculator, for example, to
look for evidence that you performed the step-by-step exercises on pp.
154-155. Do not omit the bottom of p. 149.
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