Welcome to MATH/STAT 342!

MWF 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM

Morken 214

I love this course because it empowers you understand the mathematics behind probability theory and statistical modeling.

Learning Goals*

The main learning goal of this course is that students will be able to... (drumroll)

...develop expertise working with, interpreting and applying the tools of mathematical probability

more specifically, students will:

Learn basic probability notation and concepts (independence, conditional probability, etc.). These are required basics for an actuarial exam.
Interpret and create a pdf (or pmf) and cdf.
Develop expertise with a repertoire of classic discrete and continuous probability distributions. These are useful for the more sophisticated statistical modeling applications.
Work with introductory bivariate distributions and their properties.
Learn about a variety of important tools and techniques, such as moment generating functions.
Develop familiarity with the Law of Large Numbers and mathematical foundations of the Central Limit Theorem.

All the assignments and lessons in this class are geared toward these learning goals.*

*More learning outcomes from the mathematics department and PLU's general education are given later.

Stuff you need

Prereq Knowledge & Skills

To be successful in this course, you should come in being comfortable with the basics of introductory statistics, including (but not limited) to notions of p-value, confidence intervals, and the basics of variables and their types (e.g., categorical vs. quantitative, etc.). You also should have a basic understanding of calculus, namely, using integrals to calculate the area under a curve.

Although this course will include some proofs, a proofs class is not a prereq and you won't be required to do any formal proofs on exams, etc.

You also need to have patience and grit; some aspects of the course will require you to persevere, ask questions, and hang in there.

Textbook

If you've had me as an instructor before, you know I usually don't make much use of books. This course we will actually make good use of our course text:

Introduction to the Probability and Its Applications, 3rd edition, by Richard Scheaffer and Linda Young

Based on popular demand, I will put a copy either in in Espace Rachid Benkhalti (formerly known as the Math Center) or on reserve in the library for students to work.

Technology

In my course evaluations students tend to like my website in conjunction with Google Classroom. We use Google Classroom mainly for submitting assignments, receiving feedback on assignments, and storing/viewing grades.

You will need to scan your homework and submit as a pdf into Google Classroom.

To use your phone to scan homework to a pdf & submit to Google Classroom:

Submit with iPhone: https://youtu.be/EIUpRE_xPKc

Submit with Android: https://youtu.be/AbLFIgJq5sc

You may wish to type assignments using LaTeX but I don't especially recommend it unless you're quick with that program. Neatly written assignments will suffice just fine for this course.

I may occasionally use R statistical software to run a simulation, and if students are prompted to do so, ample support and introductory materials will be provided. However, students will generally not need to use R for assigned work.

PLU email

To be successful in this course, you will need to activate and use your PLU email (ending with @plu.edu). Your email will contain an invitation to the course website that we will use daily, as well as occasional announcements and notifications about the course.

Although we will use Google Classroom for delivering and submitting assignments and forums, in general we will use this website for communicating course content.

Katyal, Prateek. (2019) "You Got This Lighted Signage." Licensed under Pexels. Retrieved from Pexels.

Course Format & What to Expect

Our course may remain in virtual format; I will keep you posted. As needed, this syllabus may be updated with requirements for masking, etc., according to campus rules. Regardless of the format, here is what you can expect from me:

Communication: I will make it clear what the tasks are each day and what upcoming deadlines are.
Purposefulness and Respect for students' time: I have carefully examined what topics can be cut so that our course is focussed with each lesson worth your time. Nothing I assign is without purpose and thoughtful preparation.
Equity and Access: Some students in our class have siblings to care for, unpredictable work schedules, unreliable Wi-Fi, and other challenges that make it very difficult—if not impossible—for them to be able to participate in synchronous (i.e., live, real-time) class sessions. Students who miss our real-time class sessions will unfortunately not get the full experience and will most certainly miss out, however, please ask about recording sessions, etc., so that you can still be successful in the course.
Transparency: The previous times I taught this course, I collected lots of feedback from students. I have implemented many of these and will continue to try to make it clear what I'm thinking, why I'm doing it, and asking you how its going. As always: please ask if you are uncertain!

GENERAL Weekly Schedule

Here is a table to help you get a sense of what a typical week will look like:

I am also available to meet by appointment if none of the given student hours work in your schedule!

Coursework

Assignments/In-Class Labs: 60%

These include homework assignments, and in-class assignments (which can become homework if unfinished during class). Some may require or allow you to work together in small groups.

All labs must be submitted as a pdf on Google Classroom (see above for instructions how to do it).

Exams 35%

This class has three exams:

Exam 1 (15%)
Final Exam (20%)

More information about these will be given later.

Check-up Quizzes / Reflective Reports: 5%

You can expect weekly check-up quizzes designed to help you receive quick feedback on whether you are grasping the main ideas of the course so far. There is no time limit. NO quiz retakes are given, even for good reasons, such as illness. Instead, at the end of the semester students who complete their final course evaluations earn 5 extra credit quiz points (equivalent to one missed quiz)*

Notice that these checkup quizzes/assignments only add to 5% of your grade. They are designed to be low-stakes and low-stress feedback on your understanding of course materials.

There also are miscellaneous assignments that contribute to this grade.

*Max allowed for this grade is 100%

Grades

Grades of A, A—, B+, B, B—, C+, C, C—, D, and F are assigned at cutoffs of 93%, 90%, 87%, 83%, 80%, 77%, 73%, 70%, 60%, and 0%, respectively.

Please see your PLU Catalog for general policies on grading, incomplete, P/F, and W grades. Online you can also find the PLU policy in case of an academic emergency (e.g., natural disaster, epidemic, etc.).

Incomplete grades are only assigned to students who have completed at least 50% of course work by the end of the semester, and who were unable to complete the course requirements due to circumstances beyond their control.

Learning Objectives (Formally)

This course is aligned with the following PLU Math Department Learning Objectives:

Communication: Be able to read, interpret, write about, and talk about mathematics.
Computation: Develop computational, algorithmic, and technological problem-solving fluency.
Abstraction: Be able to work with abstract mathematical structures, and to generalize from the concrete to the abstract.
Disciplinary Citizenship: Develop collaborative skills, independence, perseverance, and experience with open-ended inquiry.

This course is aligned with the following Statistics Minor Objectives:

Demonstrate the ability to appropriately select and use statistical models (e.g., normal distribution, t-distribution, binomial distribution) and statistical methods (e.g., regression, resampling).

Next step for syllabus:

More Syllabus

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