In this course we will cover descriptive statistics, Gaussian probability
models, point and interval estimation for means and proportions, hypothesis
testing, including t-tests and chi-square tests, regression and correlation
techniques, one-way ANOVA, and applications in the health sciences using
output from statistical packages.
Please contact Desdamona Racheli (desdamor@biostat.umn.edu, 612-625-5451)
for permission numbers if needed.
Course Information
Lecture
Textbook
- David S. Moore and George P. McCabe. (2003) Introduction to the Practice of
Statistics, 4th ed. W. H. Freeman & Co., New York. (To get the full value
of this fairly expensive book, you should definitely visit its website,
http://bcs.whfreeman.com/ips4e/, for goodies such as online quizzes (like
three exams are not enough!))
Other Readings
- Pagano and Gauvreau (2000) Principles of Biostatistics, 2nd ed., Duxbury.
- van Belle, Fisher, Heagerty and Lumley (2004) Biostatistics: A Methodology
For the Health Sciences, 2nd ed., Wiley. (Too verbose for a textbook and
too much material for a course at this level, but a good reference for the
most useful biostatistical methods and also have some good stories for
leisure reading.)
- HyperStat Online Textbook: an online (free but a bit annoying with ads and
other distractions) textbook with links to many other online resources for
learning statistics. One linked source:
The Little Handbook of Statistical Practice looks quite good and interesting
(from the first couple of sections I browsed).
Course Materials
Lab Sessions
- Location: Mayo A269 (starting from Jan 24)
- Monday 9:05 - 9:55 AM
- Wednesday 12:20 - 1:10 PM
TA Office Hours
Grading
Exams
- Exam 1: Feb 21, 2005
- Exam 2: Apr 18, 2005 (Postponed from Apr 4 but the material covered remains
the same)
- Final Exam: 10:30am-12:30pm Saturday, May 14, 2005 (Moos T 2-520, confirmed)
Note all exams are open book and open notes.
Homework
- There will be approximately 12 assignments. You may drop your two worst
scores.
- Assignments are handed out on Mondays and due the following Monday.
- If you turn in your homework on time, the score will be between 7 and 10
points, otherwise it won't be graded (0 point).
- In general, only hard copy of the homework is accepted. You can drop it in
my office or the TA's office if you cannot make the class. Under special
circumstances, you may e-mail the homework in a read-to-print PDF format to
the TAs. Microsoft Word files are unacceptable (often the files cannot be
opened or mal-formatted or the figures do not show up or something else).
- Some questions require the use of statistical software. You may use any
software (e.g., SAS, Stata, SPSS, S+, R, etc.) to your liking. You are
strongly encouraged to attend the lab sessions each week, during which the
lab instructor will go through these questions using SAS before the
assignment is due.
- Because of the timing of the lab session (either right before or right after
the class), the homework can be turned in by the end of Monday (you can
drop it in my office). You are also encouraged to attend the Wednesday lab
session.
Grading
- Exams 1 and 2: 20%.
- Final Exam: 40%.
- Homework: 20%.
- The grading scale based on the total percentage is the following:
- 93-100 A
- 90-92 A-
- 85-89 B+
- 75-84 B
- 70-74 B-
- 65-69 C+
- 55-64 C
- 50-54 C-
See UniversalPolicies about S/N grading, incompletion, course withdrawal,
disability accommodation, etc..