STAT 581: Statistical Consulting Practicum

Spring 2018 Course Syllabus

Course Description

STAT581 provides an opportunity to gain practical experience in consulting through interaction with clients of the Statistics Consulting Center. Applications of commonly encountered statistical methods and ethical aspects of practicing consulting are explored in the consulting environment. Problem Solving, written, and oral communication skills are emphasized.

This course is the MAS capstone course. MAS students taking this course will apply the knowledge they have learned from the MAS courses to solve practical problems, and complete the capstone project.

Instructors:

Xiaoyue (Maggie) Niu, PhD.

323B Thomas

SCC consulting RAs:

Kevin Quinlan

Ann Johnson

Objectives:

1)Gain experience interacting with clients

2)Practice communicating statistical concepts to non-statisticians

3)Apply statistical knowledge to real problems

Meeting Time

Thursday 1:35 -- 2:50PM Boucke 306

Tuesday 1:35 -- 2:50 PM Boucke 306 (By announcement only)

Each student will work 3 hours in the SCC. Please select your schedule from the doodle poll (link to poll posted on Canvas site). SCC scheduled hours will be in 323A (small conference room of the SCC). In addition, the class will meet as a group once a week to discuss the previous week’s appointments.

Important Policies:

  • Each student must sign up for 3 hours of Stat-On-Call which will work for them every week of the semester
  • You may work with at most 1 other student as a co-consultant during Stat-On-Call, but you may not work with the same co-consultant for all 3 hours.
  • If you absolutely cannot make your office hour, you are responsible for finding your own substitute
  • Be prepared to present in an organized manner a short summary (~ 3-5 minutes) of your meetings that week.
  • You must fill out the consultation summary the same dayasthe appointmentfailure to do so may result in a lower grade
  • If you decide to work on a data analysis for a client, you can petition one of the instructors to cut down on your regularly scheduled Stat-On-Call hours

“Penn State welcomes students with disabilities into the University's educational programs. If you have a disability-related need for reasonable academic adjustments in this course, contact the Office for Disability Services (ODS) at 814-863-1807 (V/TTY). For further information regarding ODS, please visit the Office for Disability Services Web site at . In order to receive consideration for course accommodations, you must contact ODS and provide documentation (see the documentation guidelines at ). If the documentation supports the need for academic adjustments, ODS will provide a letter identifying appropriate academic adjustments. Please share this letter and discuss the adjustments with your instructor as early in the course as possible. You must contact ODS and request academic adjustment letters at the beginning of each semester.”

All PennState policies regarding ethics and honorable behavior apply to this course (see links below for policy statements). Academicintegrity is the pursuit of scholarly activity free from fraud and deception and is an educational objective of this institution. All University policies regarding academicintegrity apply to this course.

Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, cheating, plagiarizing, fabricating of information or citations, facilitating acts ofacademic dishonesty by others, having unauthorized possession of examinations, submitting work of another person or work previously used without informing the instructor, or tampering with the academic work of other students. For any material or ideas obtained from other sources, such as the text or things you see on the web, in the library, etc., a source reference must be given. Direct quotes from any source must be identified as such. All exam answers must be your own, and you must not provide any assistance to other students during exams. Any instances ofacademic dishonesty WILL be pursued under the University and Eberly College of Science regulations concerning academicintegrity.