Download Syllabus - St. Catherine University

Statistical Analysis for Decision Making (ECON 2250)
Spring Term 2011
Eric Stacey, Adjunct Professor of Economics, Director of Athletics
Office: Butler 102 B
Phone: 651-690-8778
E-mail address: [email protected]
Office hours: By appointment
Class time: Sundays 8:30 AM – Noon
Location: Butler Center 103
Welcome to ECON 2250! I want to start by introducing myself. I am the Director of Athletics at St.
Catherine. I did my undergraduate work in math and economics and I went on to receive my master’s
degree in economics from the University of Virginia. The word statistics can bring on different emotions
in different people. These emotions range from fear in some to excitement in others. No matter where
you fit on this scale, by the end of this course you will have gained an understanding of descriptive
statistics, inferential statistics, and probability. You will be able to use statistical methods and interpret
results of statistical analysis. In order for you to be successful in this course it will be important that you
master the skills as we go. I encourage you to seek help right away if there is a something that you do not
fully understand. We will be building on concepts learned throughout the course, so please be proactive
and ask for help if you have questions. I am excited to work with you throughout this term!
Class Location: The class will be held in Butler Center room 103.
ASSIGNMENT FOR THE FIRST CLASS: Please go to the assignments tab on Blackboard to see
what you need to complete for the first class. If you have problems accessing any of the materials on
Blackboard please call or email me.
Blackboard: A course page in Blackboard will be set up for this class by March 26th. On this page, you
can find
 Important announcements
 Assigned odd numbered problems from the textbook for each topic under the assignments tab
 Graded homework assignments
 Scores for assignments, quizzes and exams under the student tools tab
You can connect to blackboard from the following URL: http://blackboard8.stkate.edu
Required Text: Lind, Douglas A., Marchal, William G. and Wathen, Samuel A., Statistical Techniques
in Business & Economics, 14th edition, McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2008. The ISBN for this textbook is 978-007-340176-8. The included student CD contains a lot of useful supplementary information including the
Megastat add-in to Excel.
Course Description: This course gives an introduction to quantitative decision-making, descriptive
statistics, data analysis, probability, sampling, estimation, regression, index numbers and forecasting.
Course Goals: Upon successful completion of this course, a student should be able to
 Understand the basic concepts of descriptive statistics, inferential statistics and probability
 Be able to use appropriate statistical methods in a variety of situations
 Be able to interpret the results of statistical analysis.
1
Students with Disabilities: Students with disabilities that feel that they may need accommodations to
succeed in this course should contact the Office of Resources for Disabilities at 651-690-6563 as soon as
possible to ensure that accommodations can be implemented in a timely manner.
Class Meeting Time: Class time in this course will be devoted mainly to solving problems. You are
expected to come to each class prepared. In this course each topic builds on the previous topics so it is
extremely important that you complete the ungraded assigned textbook problems and the graded
homework assignments before the next class period. You must bring this work to class each day. We
will devote a few minutes at the beginning of class each day to go over any questions you have on the
assigned problems or the homework assignment from the last class. The second part of being prepared is
to read all of the assigned chapters that we will discuss that day. We will spend the majority of class time
solving problems together, or in small groups. You will need to bring your textbook and a calculator to
each class to participate in the problem solving.
You may use any calculator you wish for this class, but it is your responsibility to learn how to use your
calculator. There is a ‘Calculator Quiz’ under the assignments tab on Blackboard that gives some
examples of the types of calculations you will need to be able to perform in this course. Please make sure
you are able to correctly do all of those calculations before the first class. We cannot use class time to go
over how to find appropriate functions on your calculator.
Grading Policy: A total of 500 points can be earned in this class from the following items:
 Online calculator quiz worth up to 10 points
 Six graded homework assignments, one worth up to 15 points and five worth up to 30 points each
 Five in-class quizzes, worth up to 25 points each
 Two take-home open book, open note exams, each worth up to 100 points
The following scale will be used to determine your course grade:
Total points
Percentage of points
Grade
460 -- 500
92% -- 100%
A
450 -- 459
90% -- 91.9%
A440 – 449
88% -- 89.9%
B+
410 -- 439
82% -- 87.9%
B
400 – 409
80% -- 81.9%
B390 -- 399
78% -- 79.9%
C+
355 -- 389
71% -- 77.9%
C
345 – 354
69% -- 70.9%
C335 -- 344
67% -- 68.9%
D+
285 -- 334
57% -- 66.9%
D.
Calculator Quiz: The purpose of the calculator quiz is to make sure you know how to do the necessary
calculations on your calculator. The quiz is available on Blackboard under the assignments tab. You may
take the quiz as many times as you like; only your last score will count towards your grade. The
calculator quiz must be completed before the start of the first class meeting.
Assignments: The purpose of the assignments is to give you practice in working with the concepts from
class. There are two types of assignments in this class. The first type is the ungraded assigned odd
numbered problems from the textbook. You can find a list of all assigned textbook questions by chapter
and topic under the assignments tab on Blackboard. The answers to these questions can be found in the
2
back of your textbook. I highly recommend going through these questions BEFORE you start to work on
the graded assignment.
The graded homework assignments are comprised of questions that I write. I will post these assignments
to the assignments tab on Blackboard after each class. You are encouraged to write these assignments by
hand, but I expect to receive well organized, legible homework assignments from everyone. The due dates
for these assignments are listed on the course calendar. I have chosen these particular due dates to allow
all students the option of asking questions in class about the assignment before it is due. However, I
strongly recommend you do your best to complete the assignment on your own before the next class.
I will accept homework assignments up to 24 hours late. However you will lose 10% of the possible
points. If you chose to turn in an assignment late, you do not need to tell me why it is late, nor will doing
so change the penalty to your grade.
Quizzes: There are two purposes of the quizzes. One is to measure your individual understanding of the
material. The other is to help you prepare for the exams. The quizzes in this class are open book and
open notes. They will be completed in class. You will need to use a calculator for the quizzes. All work
must be shown to receive full credit for any problem-solving or short-answer question. However, if you
do work that you decide is either incorrect or not relevant to the problem, you must either erase or cross
out that work. Any work shown on the quiz that is either incorrect or not relevant to the problem will
cause you to lose points. You may not give or receive assistance from other students in the class on the
quizzes. The minimum punishment for violating these rules is receiving a zero on the quizzes.
Exams: The purpose of the exams is to measure your individual understanding of the topics covered in
class. The exams in this class are open book and open notes. They are take-home exams.
You may not give or receive assistance from other students in the class on the exam. The minimum
punishment for violating these rules is receiving a zero on the exam.
The exams will consist mainly of multiple choice or short answer questions similar in style to the
questions solved both during and outside of class. The ungraded and graded assignments and the quizzes
will help you prepare. I also recommend doing the additional odd numbered questions at the end of each
chapter in your textbook to help prepare for the exam. The answers to all odd numbered questions can be
found in the back of your textbook. The exams will also contain some multiple-choice questions to test
your understanding of the basic concepts and calculations. Reading the textbook and using the
supplemental material on the student CD will help you prepare for these questions.
Make-ups: Students are expected to make all reasonable adjustments to their schedules to attend the
quizzes at the regularly scheduled time. If for any reason you need to take a quiz after the regularly
scheduled time, there will be a 5% point deduction from your quiz score. No points will be deducted if
you need to take a quiz earlier than the regularly scheduled time. All make-ups must be completed
before the start of the next class.
The online exams must be taken during the time period set for those exams. There will be no make-ups
for the exams.
3
Course Calendar for ECON 2250
Spring Term 2011
Class Meeting Time 8:30 AM – Noon
April 10th – Class meeting #1
 Introduction to class
 Discuss frequency distributions (chapter 2) and measures of location and dispersion (chapter 3)
 Discuss displaying and exploring data (chapter 4)
 Calculator quiz due –( if you have problems I will help you and give extra time)
 Homework #1 due
April 17th – Class meeting #2
 Discuss probability theory (chapter 5)
 Quiz #1 (covers material from class #1)
 Homework #2 due
May 1st – Class meeting #3
 Discuss discrete probability distributions (chapter 6) and continuous probability distributions
(chapter 7)
 Quiz #2 (covers material from class #2)
 Homework #3 due
May 15th – Class meeting #4
 Discuss continuous probability distributions (Chapter 7) and central limit theorem (chapter 8)
 Quiz #3 (covers material from class #3)
 Homework #4 due
 Homework #5 (ungraded) posted
 Answer Key for Homework #5 posted
May 27th – June 5th Take home midterm
 Take-home midterm posted by noon on May 27th
June 5th – Class #5
 Midterm Exam is due
 Discuss confidence intervals (chapter 9) and one-sample tests of mean (chapter 10)
June 19th – Class #6
 Discuss two-sample tests of mean and analysis of variance (chapter 12)
 Quiz #4 (covers material from class #5)
 Homework #6 due
June 26th - Class meeting #7
 Discuss linear regression (Chapter 13)
 Quiz #5
 Review for final exam
 Homework #7 due
4
June 26th
 Homework Assignment #8 (ungraded- answer key is posted to study for exam)
 Final Exam posted
July 1st (no later than 4 PM)
 Final exam is due
5