MATH 4303 – Probability and Statistics I Fall 2015

Instructor: Dr. Clint Givens / email: cgivens@usao.edu / office phone: 405-574-1259

Class Meets: TR 9:30-10:55, Austin 202

Office Hours: My office is Austin 103. You are welcome to drop in anytime my door is open. I am guaranteed to be in my office during the following times, unless I notify you otherwise:

Mon 9:05-10:05, 2:30-3:30 Tue 8:25-9:25, 2:30-4:30 Wed 2:30-4:30 Thu 1:30-3:30 Fri 9:05-10:05

Required Textbooks: There is one required textbook: Probability and Statistical Inference, 9th edition, by Hogg, Tanis, Zimmerman. (I’ve been asked whether the 8th edition is an acceptable alternative. I believe it will be in terms of the content for reading but the exercises will be assigned from the 9th edition, so you will need to be able to get the correct exercises.)

Email: Please check your official USAO email regularly. Visit http://usao.edu/infoservices/how-access-your-usao-student-email-account for instructions on how to access your email account.

Course Objectives: Students who have successfully completed this course should be able to

1. Use and understand a variety of concepts and techniques from elementary probability theory, including both discrete and continuous distributions;

2. Make use of appropriate tools and/or software in order to perform probability simulations; 3. Assess and critique the correctness of a claim based on probabilistic and statistical

reasoning.

Grading Categories: 1. Homework 30% 2. Quizzes 10% 3. Tests (x2) 40% 4. Final Exam 20%

Homework - 30% Homework problem sets include exercises and questions intended to help you review and master the material, including important mathematical procedures, concepts, and techniques. You are strongly encouraged to collaborate with your classmates in approaching the homework problems, though each student must always write up their solutions independently. See the caution below.

Caution: For some of the homework problems, it may be possible to use a solution manual, or to copy an answer directly from another student or other source, without an independent effort to work through/understand the details of the solution yourself. This

type of thoughtless, verbatim copying is academic dishonesty, and if I find out that it has happened, I will pursue sanctions as outlined in the USAO Student Handbook. However, even if you are not detected, consider that making a habit of this will only short-change yourself: a) you will not have the practice you need to actually learn, internalize, and be able to apply the mathematical concepts;

b) you will not be able to distinguish which concepts you know well, and which ones require further study or help from the professor, classmates, or tutors;

c) you will be less prepared for quizzes and exams, which together are worth a much greater proportion of your grade than the homework. You may wish to visit http://www.haverford.edu/math/collaboration.html, which has an excellent rundown of what is and is not appropriate in math homework collaboration.

Homework is due at the beginning of class on the scheduled due date. Because we will often begin discussing homework immediately on the due date, it is crucial that you have the homework with you and completed. If you are unable to attend class on the date a homework set is due, for whatever reason, you must arrange to submit it to me early (e.g. hand it to me, slide it under my office door, or scan and email), or have it handed in on time by a fellow student. Late homework is not accepted except in the case of sudden, documentable illness or emergency.

Quizzes – 10% - In order to (1) encourage attendance and timeliness, (2) keep you honest about completing required readings and working productively on your homework, and (3) help both you and me see how well you are keeping up with the material, I will frequently give short, graded in-class quizzes. These may or may not be announced ahead of time; they will take place in the first 5-10 minutes of class; and there will be no make-ups for quizzes missed due to absence or tardiness. If you are doing the assigned readings and tackling the homework problems with an eye toward understanding, these should not be difficult. In the case of a documentable, legitimate reason for absence, a quiz grade for that day will be waived. It is your responsibility to find out following an (excusable) absence whether you have missed a quiz, and to provide appropriate documentation, so that the quiz score will be waived. Apart from quiz grades waived in this manner, your single lowest quiz grade of the trimester will also be dropped.

Tests - 40% - There will be three tests (not including the final exam), each worth 20% of your course grade. One of the three will occur during the final exam time block, but will be weighted equally with the other two. All three exams will be comprehensive, meaning they may test you not only over the most recent content but over any previously covered material, even if it already appeared on a prior test. You will receive additional information about the format and scoring of the exams as they approach.

Tests must be taken in class on the scheduled dates. There will be no make-up tests in case of absence unless there is a compelling, documentable reason (e.g. illness, family emergency). If you know you will be missing a test for any reason, it is your responsibility to contact me as soon as possible prior to the test in order to make alternative arrangements. If you are late to class on a test date, you will not receive additional time to finish. Final Exam – 20% - The final exam will also be comprehensive, and will account for 20% of your course grade.

Course Grade: In each category the percentage of points earned (from the total possible within that category) will be determined and then weighted according to the values above, resulting in a final overall weighted percentage. This will be rounded to the nearest whole number and a letter grade assigned as follows: 90-100: A 80 - 89: B 70 - 79: C 60 – 69: D 59 or below: F Class Attendance: Be on time for class. We will have important activities, explanations, and discussions during class time, so make attendance a priority. Also, as mentioned above, some class days will begin with a quiz which cannot be made up if you are absent. Reading: This should go without saying, but: You should actually read the assigned material. You may wish to re-read selected portions later (though some research has found that it is more helpful to outline/summarize/synthesize than to simply re-read it). You are responsible for substantive information presented in assigned readings, whether or not it is explicitly mentioned in classroom lectures or discussion. Be aware that readings with mathematical content often take significantly more time per page than other sources such as novels or news articles. For the most effective learning (in math or anywhere), you should strive to be an active reader rather than a passive reader, which means you should ask questions of the text and probe your own understanding of it. Think of your own examples, predict what the answer will be before you look at it, consider whether a situation is realistic, consider whether other people might disagree with a point being made and why—in short, think about what you are reading while you are reading it. Getting Help: Successful students are proactive about their learning. You have a number of options when it comes to getting help; if you don’t feel satisfied with how you are doing in the course and want to improve, make use of these resources. (1) Come visit me. I am committed to helping you in any reasonable way to achieve your goals for this course. I have a total of 10 office hours throughout the week; make a note right now of which ones fit your schedule. (If you want to meet with me about an assignment that’s due on Monday, you wouldn’t want to check and find out Wednesday evening that you have a schedule conflict with my Thursday and Friday office hours.) If your schedule is perfectly misaligned with my office hours, you can always ask me about scheduling an appointment.

When you do come, it will be most helpful for both of us if you have already sat down and tried to work through what you can, and made notes of specific questions / areas of confusion which you’d like to go over with me. When a question / confusion comes up during your studying, jot it down in a notebook/app/sticky note designated for that purpose, or you are likely to forget it and then you won’t get that question answered!

(2) The top floor of Nash Library features a Math and Science Tutor (MaST) Center where you can get help from peer tutors. Hours of operation are Mon-Thu 9-7, and Fri 9-5. Same considerations apply as in the previous paragraph—you can get better help if you come armed with specific questions / areas of confusion. Note: On the whole, it is likely that the tutors will be less prepared to assist with an upper-level mathematics course such as this one, as compared to a lower-division course, though some may still be able to provide assistance.

(3) Your peers in the course are a valuable resource as well. I would strongly encourage you to form a small study group which meets on a regular basis to work together and help each other out. It is important that all members of the group contribute toward a group culture that is productive, positive, and collaborative, so choose peers who exhibit these qualities, and be a leader yourself in encouraging them to do so.

(4) You may be able to find help for specific topics from a variety of online sources. Some pretty good ones are Khan Academy, betterexplained.com, mathforum.org/dr.math, and there are jillions more of varying quality and comprehensiveness.

Withdrawal: If you are considering withdrawing from the course, I would encourage you to talk to me first if possible, and certainly with your adviser. If you do decide to withdraw, be advised that it is your sole responsibility to do so by the appropriate deadline. The last day to drop with no effect on your transcript is Aug 28, the last day to drop with an automatic W is Sep 25, and the last day to withdraw at all is Nov 13. Disclaimer: The instructor reserves the right to make adjustments to this syllabus when deemed necessary at any point in the course, with appropriate notification.