Welcome to the STAtistics Zone

(Statistics, Period C)
Web address shortcut for this page: http://www.modd.net/910stat

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.
Recurring Assignment: Each Wednesday from 9/16/2009 through 12/9/2009, there may be a discussion or a graded open-notes quiz on the “Quick Study” column in the previous day’s Washington Post Health section.

 

W 4/28/010

Mini-AP (graded, but not at the same weight as a real test).

 

Th 4/29/010

Quadruple HW due (counts as 4 scores of 4 points each):

1. On fresh sheets of paper, re-do parts (a), (b), (c), and (d) of yesterday’s question 6. You do not need to put (a), (b), (c), and (d) on four separate sheets this time unless you wish to. I highly recommend that you try to do this in 25 minutes and without referring to the scoring key. However, if you are unable to answer the questions without using the scoring key, then use the scoring key. This portion of the assignment will be scored for completeness and effort. Since you have the scoring key, I do expect all problems to be fully answered, even if some errors remain, and even if it takes you significantly longer than 25 minutes.

If you forgot to take your question #6 with you (I know at least one person forgot), then click here and print out the 4 pages you need.

2. The second score will be for the format of your re-done answers, using the following scale:

        4 = legible throughout, not necessarily neat
        3 = mostly legible, with only a few words that require a second reading or more careful reading
        2 = significant amount of sloppiness evident, but still legible in context
        1 = extra effort required to decipher, even when taking context clues into account
        0 = just plain sloppy

Multiple, persistent spelling or grammar errors will result in a penalty of 1 point. A few isolated minor goofs will not affect your format score.

3. The third score will be for your markups of your original work (not your re-done work). Use a blue pen only to mark up the work that you did in class on Wednesday. Referring to the AP scoring rubric distributed with your original papers (or here if you have lost your copy), mark “E,” “P,” or “I” for each portion, and compute a final score according to the rules. Write the final score at the top of the first page, and circle it.

4. The fourth score will be for the accuracy of your grading in #3. If you have followed the rubric correctly, your assessment should match mine. (I saved a photocopy of your work.)

 

F 4/30/010

Double HW due: Set a timer for 35 minutes. In your Barron’s book, turn to Practice Exam 3 (p. 419 in my copy, but your page number may differ because of edition differences). Answer problems #4-19 in ink on a clean sheet of homework paper, without peeking at the answers. (If you run out of time, stop immediately.) Work is optional. When you have answered all 16 questions, turn to the explanations (not the answer key, but the “Answers Explained” section underneath) and see which ones you missed.

Now, for the second part of your assignment, write a line or two stating what you learned for each question you missed. (If you missed none, then do another group of problems until you miss at least one. Remember, we can learn best from our mistakes, but only if we pay attention to them.)

In class, I will ask you for your original answers (the ones you wrote in ink) so that we can estimate a multiple-choice readiness score comparable to the free-response score you computed for homework yesterday. How well or how poorly you answered the questions originally will not affect your homework score.

 

 

As promised, here is the explanation of question #18. I think I did a better job of explaining it than the Barron’s book authors did. See what you think . . .

 

M 5/3/010

HW due: Same as last Friday, except this time do problems #20-40 from the same Practice Exam 3 in your Barron’s book. As before, write a line or two of insight for each question that you miss. I recommend setting a timer for 48 minutes before you start. (Technically, the timing would be 47:15, but since it will take you a half minute or so to get yourself positioned after starting the timer, you can set the timer for 48 minutes.)

If you are taking the AP exam tomorrow, please send me an e-mail tonight to let me know whether or not you will be attending C period on Tuesday.

 

T 5/4/010

AP Examination, 1:00 p.m., Trapier Theater. Class today is optional for people who are taking the exam. Everyone else needs to attend. Please confirm your exam status so that I can take roll properly during C period today.

 

W 5/5/010

No additional HW due.

In class: Must-Pass Quiz.

 

Th 5/6/010

HW due: If you have not already done so, listen to this radio segment about the placebo effect. There may be a short quiz.

In class: Must-Pass Quiz.

 

May 7-10

More of the same. We may embark upon a project. It is difficult to make much headway as a class during AP weeks.

 

T 5/11/010

Class will meet in MH-313 today.

 

W 5/12/010

No AP exams today. Wheee!

In class: Graded pop quiz (10 pts.). Graham and Robbie get a free score of 10.

 

Th 5/13/010

Class today will meet in MH-311.

In class: MPQ, followed by a graded quiz (2 or 3 questions), followed by more MPQ. The graded quiz portion will have a strict time limit and will not begin until everyone has arrived.

 

F 5/14/010

NSA field trip for Form VI and a few other students will depart at 10:30 sharp from the Martin Gym area and will return by lunchtime. The May 14 trip is a tour of the museum only. The May 25 trip will include both a tour of the museum and a hands-on codebreaking workshop conducted by an NSA mathematician, but unfortunately, Form VI cannot go on May 25 because of the Snowpocalypse-induced rescheduling of Career Day.

Normal STA dress code will be in effect during our time at the museum.

 

M 5/17/010

Please come to JBAM Monday morning at 7:30. Full details and rules are at jbam.net. I hope to see everyone there!

 

T 5/18/010

Please come to McDonald’s Week, day 2 (Big Trig competition).

 

W 5/19/010

Senior skip day (no class).

Note to whoever put together the study guide entitled “MPQ Questions*”: You have a bug in your answer key for #43. You’ll want to correct the error before you memorize the wrong version.

 

Th 5/20/010

Please come to Big Trig Classic at McDonald’s in the early morning.

Class today meets in MH-313.

 

F 5/21/010

Class today meets again in MH-313.

 

M 5/24/010

In class: Who will be the anchorman? Alas, this question is not to be settled today.

 

T 5/25/010

Career Day (no class).

After school: Both Nick and Arya pass the MPQ! Bravo! Stills and videos to follow!

 

W 5/26/010

 

 

Th 5/27/010

 

 

F 5/28/010

Last day of class; end of fourth quarter. All assignments and extra credit, if any, must be submitted by 3:30 p.m. today.

 

M 6/7/010

Final Exam, 8:00 a.m., MH-102. I am hoping that everyone will be exempt from this requirement. However, it remains to be seen.

 

 

Essential Links:
--
STA School Handbook
-- College Board: AP Statistics Course Description
-- Our old 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:
-- 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 from 2003, plus an abstract in 2007)
-- 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 (please see me if interested):
-- American Statistical Association poster or project competition, deadline 4/1/2009
-- Washington Statistical Society Curtis Jacobs Memorial Prize, deadline 5/18/2009
-- Other extra credit options are available under the Fun Links at modd.net (see Mathcross Puzzles)

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 old textbook), Sept. 2000:
-- Test #1

Old Test #1 (Introduction through Section 2.2 of old 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 old textbook):
-- Study guide
-- Test #3 (merged version)
-- Answer key

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

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

Test #5 (Sections 6.2, 6.3, 7.1 of old 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 old textbook):
-- Actual test, 2/6/2002

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

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

Test #7 (Sections 8.1-8.3 of old 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 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: 25 May 2010