Fall Semester 2006, Academic Year 2006-07
DuquesneUniversity
School of Liberal Arts
Fall Semester 2006, Academic Year 2006-07
MATH 225 02—Introduction to Biostatistics
Class Time: Mondays--Wednesdays--Fridays
11:00am to 11:50am
College Hall 446
3 Credits
Instructor:Matthew Goodburn, M.A.
Phone: 412-396-6437 Office
412-396-5072 FAX
E-mail:
Office: College Hall, Room 432
Office Hours: Mondays: 10:00am to 10:50am
1:30pm to 2:50pm
4:30pm to 5:30pm
Wednesdays: 10:00am to 10:50am
1:30pm to 2:50pm
4:30pm to 5:30pm
Fridays: 10:00am to 10:50am
And by appointment
Feel free to stop by during my office hours or make an appointment to meet with me if you need any additional help with the class. Also, feel free to contact me through e-mail if that is more convenient.
Honor Policy:
I expect all of my students to have academic honor, and am an advocate of the Duquesne University Academic Integrity Policy in the Student Handbook and Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities and Conduct, pages 11-14.
Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, cheating on exams or quizzes, plagiarizing, or presenting the work of another as your own. Any student caught in an act of academic dishonesty will be prosecuted to the full extent allowed under the University's code of conduct. This is in addition to automatically receiving a score of zero on the assignment, which equates to an F grade on the assignment.
Students with Disabilities:
Students with documented disabilities who require accommodations in fulfilling the course requirements should notify the instructor during the first week of class and provide the instructor with a copy of their certifying letter. If you do not have such a letter, please contact the Office of Freshman Development and Special Student Services in 309 Duquesne Union (412-396-6657) as soon as possible. Accommodations will not be granted retrospectively.
Text:Pagano, Marcello and Gauvreau, Kimberlee. Principles of Biostatistics. Duxbury/Thomson Learning. 2000. Second Edition. ISBN 0-534-22902-6.
We will be covering most of Chapters 1 through 3, 6 through 12, and chapter 14 during the semester. Bring the text to class, as we will often refer to it during lectures, and possibly during quizzes. It will benefit you to read the text (sometimes both before and after class) to aid in your understanding of the course.
Course Objectives:
This course is designed to introduce students to probability and statistical inference. At the end of this course, students will have a thorough understanding of descriptive statistics, probability, sampling distributions, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, regression, analysis of variance, and inference on proportions.
Grading:
The total points accumulated throughout the semester will determine course grades. There will be 3 quizzes over the semester. Each quiz is worth 40 points, and I will only count the top 2 quiz scores toward your final grade (that means you get to drop your lowest quiz score). Thus, 80 points of your grade are for quizzes. There will be 3 exams over the semester, and each will be worth 100 points. Thus, 300 points of your grade are from the exams. The final exam, which is cumulative, will be worth 120 points. Therefore, over the semester you will have a possible 500 points.
Grades will be assigned based on the following scale and point totals:
A92-100458+ points
A-90-91448 to 457 points
B+88-89438 to 447 points
B82-87408 to 437 points
B-80-81398 to 407 points
C+78-79388 to 397 points
C70-77348 to 387 points
D60-69298 to 347 points
F59 and Below 0 to 297 points
Homework
Homework assignments will be assigned from the questions in the text and possibly class handouts. The assignments will not be collected, but should be done, as they will help in preparing for the quizzes and exams. Reading the text and doing the assigned homework problems are an important part of doing well in this class, and should be given the utmost importance. Do not fall behind, and be sure to come to me for additional help if you are struggling with a particular topic.
Quizzes
There will be a short quiz on certain days of class. The quiz will be a few short problems, and will cover the major topics from a previous lecture or an assigned homework problem. Your lowest quiz grade will be dropped. If you miss class when there is a quiz, and do not have a University-approved excuse, then that is the quiz that you drop. We will have 3 quizzes over the course of the semester. The quizzes will be on the following dates:
Quiz #1Friday, September 15
Quiz #2Friday, October 13
Quiz #3Wednesday, November 15
We will do our best to maintain this schedule. However, if necessary, we will make changes to the quiz dates. If a change is made, though, it will always be to delay a quiz by a day or two--it will not be to move the quiz up by a day or two.
Exams
There will be 3 in-class exams and a final exam in this course. The in-class exams will consist of possibly some multiple choice or true/false questions, as well as problems to evaluate and will be on the following dates:
Exam #1Wednesday, September 27
Exam #2Monday, October 30
Exam #3Wednesday, December 6
Again, we will do our best to maintain this schedule. However, if necessary, we will make changes to the exam dates. If a change is made, though, it will always be to delay an exam by a day or two--it will not be to move the exam up by a day or two.
Make-up exams will be given only in the unusual event of a medically certified illness or the untimely demise of a family member.
The final exam will be cumulative. It is scheduled for Monday, December 18, from 8:45am to 10:45am.
Blackboard
There is a Blackboard site for this course. At the site you will be able to find a copy of the syllabus, quiz dates and what the quiz covers, and exam dates and what the exam covers. Additionally, I will post the homework and reading assignments for the class, as well as selected answers to the homework assignments and additional practice problems. If you miss a class, you can see what was missed at the blackboard site.
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