STAT 150 – Introduction to Statistical Investigations
– Fall 2009
Assignments
For Tues Dec 1
Watch the recording of your regression project presentation. Write (and submit) a few paragraphs critiquing your presentation. Please comment on aspects of your presentation that went well, and also suggest areas in which you can improve along with specific plans for how you can improve in those areas. Also include reactions to feedback that you have received from the instructors on your presentations throughout the course.
For Mon Nov 30
Read Chapter 8 of SuperCrunchers.
For Thur Nov 19
Complete final report for regression project.
Read Chapter 7 of SuperCrunchers.
For Wed Nov 18
Prepare presentation for regression project.
For Thur Nov 12
Read the article “Giving the Finger to Dating Services,” available here.
For Tues Nov 10
Complete the Minitab assignment for week 7 (here).
For Mon Nov 9
Read Chapter 6 of SuperCrunchers. Also read the SAGTU essay “Predicting the Quality and Prices of Bordeaux Wines,” pages 407-423.
For Wed Nov 4
Write a (word-processed) essay of 3-5 paragraphs based on your interview of an upperclass student majoring in Statistics. Do not simply provide a listing of answers to the questions that you posed. Instead produce a well-organized essay that describes what you learned about this student. Try to organize your essay around a common theme about the student that emerged as you got to know a bit about him/her.
For Tues Nov 3
Read Chapter 5 of SuperCrunchers.
For Mon Nov 2
Complete final report, prepare presentation for “comparisons” project.
For Thur Oct 29
Prepare a complete draft of the report for your “comparisons” project. Bring three copies to class.
For Wed Oct 28
Finish data collection for “comparisons” project, bring data to class (preferably in electronic form).
For Tues Oct 27
Read Chapter 4 of SuperCrunchers. Also read the SAGTU essay “Advertising as an Engineering Science,” pages 373-389.
For Mon Oct 26
Submit research question, data collection plan for “comparisons” project to both instructors via email.
For Thur Oct 22
Read the SAGTU essay “Statistics in the Courtroom,” pages 3-18.
For Tues Oct 20
Complete the “Studies and Conclusions” assignment, available here.
Read Chapter 3 of SuperCrunchers. Also read the SAGTU essay “Evaluating School Choice Programs,” pages 69-87.
For Mon Oct 19
Complete your final report for the gapminder project.
Read the SAGTU essay “Leveraging Chance in HIV Research,” pages 227-242.
For Wed Oct 14
Prepare a presentation for your gapminder project. See the project handout for guidelines.
For Tues Oct 13
Prepare a complete draft of the report for your gapminder project. Bring three copies to class. During class everyone will read the draft report from another group and offer constructive feedback on how to improve the report.
For Mon Oct 12
Read Chapter 2 of SuperCrunchers. Also
read Marc Raibert’s essay “Good Writing,” available here. (Be ready for a quiz.)
For Thur Oct 8
Read the Introduction and Chapter 1 of SuperCrunchers.
For Wed Oct 7
Prepare (and rehearse) a two-minute presentation about the faculty member that you interviewed.
For Tues Oct 6
Complete the Minitab assignment for week 3 (here).
For Mon Oct 5
Interview a Statistics Department faculty member. See the list of questions and advice that we discussed here.
Complete the Minitab assignment for week 2 (here).
Watch the online video of Hans Rosling’s 2006 TED lecture, available here.
For Thur Oct 1
Explore two websites that offer interactive graphical displays:
Enter your own name at: http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager. Write a few sentences commenting on what the graph(s) reveal about how your name’s popularity has changed over time. Then enter two other names that you find interesting, and comment on what the graphs reveal about their popularity. (Feel free to explore the behavior for many names, but only write up comments about yours and two others.)
Enter “statistician” at: http://flare.prefuse.org/launch/apps/job_voyager. Write a few sentences commenting on what the
graph(s) reveal about how this profession’s popularity has changed over
time. Then enter two other professions
that you find interesting, and comment on what the graphs reveal about their
popularity. (Feel free to explore the
behavior for many professions, but only write up comments about “statistician”
and two others.)
For Wed Sept 30
Write up (to be turned in) your analysis of the misleading graph that you were assigned on Monday. Be sure to discuss what you feel was misleading about the original graph, describe how you improved the graphical presentation, and summarize the information revealed by your revised and improved graph. Also submit a copy of your revised graph. (You should write up your analysis individually, even though you worked with a partner in class. You can submit the same revised graph as your partner. Please consider word-processing your write-up.)
For Mon Sept 28
Read the article “How to Display Data Badly” by Howard Wainer, available here.
Write up answers to these questions about the “To Catch a Thief” essay:
a) Describe/explain what the thieves are stealing.
b) Figure 1 clearly reveals the existence of fraud and indicates when it began. Why can’t the company rely upon such graphs for all its customers to detect fraud? In other words, why does the company need to develop an automated, numerical system for detecting fraud?
c) Identify two reasons why it’s preferable to base account signatures on a few variables rather than many variables.
d) A call score is based on the ratio of what two probabilities? Does a high or a low call score indicate fraud? Explain why, based on the ratio.
e) Thresholds for identifying troubled accounts are set by considering the relative costs of two possible errors. Describe these two possible errors. Setting a high threshold would make which kind of error more likely to occur?
For Thur Sept 24
Read the essay “To Catch a Thief” (SAGTU, p. 293-306).
Write a paragraph (or two) in response to our “questions on backs” activity. First describe interesting features of the graph, and then explain why you made the guess that you did. Then reveal what the question actually was, and describe what the graph reveals about responses to this question in our class. Also submit the graph itself. (A word-processed report is preferred, but hand-written is acceptable. If you would like to revise, or even re-do, the graph itself, please feel free.)
For Wed Sept 23
Read course syllabus.
Obtain textbooks.
Read the following three articles that have appeared in the
media recently (click on the link to access the article). Be prepared to discuss these in class. Article 1 (New York Times) Article 2 (
To come later:
Explore the interactive graphics available at: http://www.nytimes.com//interactive/2009/07/31/business/20080801-metrics-graphic.html.