MAT 240 - Applied Statistics
Syllabus (Spring 2025)
Course Description: This is a fundamental course in the application of statistics. In this course, students learn how to apply statistical techniques to a variety of applications in business and the social sciences. Students learn how to solve statistical problems by hand and through the use of computer software. Topics include probability distribution functions, sampling distributions, estimation, hypothesis testing, and linear regression.
Course Timeline
Below is a tentative timeline for our course. For each meeting day, it includes a description of the topic covered, suggested reading, notes (sometimes), and assignments you are prepared to complete.
| Class Meeting | Topic | Textbook Sections | Notes | Assignments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction and What to Expect Excel Basics |
Day 1, Overview | ||
| 2 | Probability and Statistics Terminology Experimental Design Ethics in Statistics and Data Analysis |
$\S$1.1 - 1.3, 1.5 | Day 2, Terminology and Background | HW 1 |
| 3 | Excel Fundamentals for Data Analysis | Day 3, Unlocking Excel | ||
| 4 | Organizing and Summarizing Data Summary Statistics with Excel Data Visualization with Excel |
$\S$1.4, 2.1 - 2.6 | Day 4, Summary Statistics and Data Viz | HW 2 |
| 5 | Discrete Random Variables Discrete Probability Binomial Experiments and the Binomial Distribution |
$\S$3.1 - 3.3, 4.1, 4.2, and 4.4 | Day 5, Discrete Probability | HW 3 |
| 6 | Continuous Random Variables The Normal Distribution |
$\S$5.1 - 5.5 | Day 6, Normal Distribution | HW 4 |
| 7 | The Central Limit Theorem and the Sampling Distribution | $\S$6.1 - 6.3 | Day 7, CLT and Sampling Distributions | HW 5 |
| 8 | Probability Workshop | Probability Workshop Problems | ||
| 9 | Project Working day | |||
| 10 | Group Exam I | |||
| 11 | Individual Exam I | |||
| 12 | Confidence Intervals | $\S$7.1, 7.2 | Day 12, Introduction to Confidence Intervals | |
| 13 | Confidence Intervals for a Single Population Mean | $\S$7.3 | Day 13, Confidence Intervals for a Single Population Mean | |
| 14 | Confidence Intervals for a Single Population Proportion | $\S$7.4 | Day 14, Confidence Intervals for a Single Population Proportion | HW 6 |
| 15 | The Hypothesis Testing Framework Errors in Hypothesis Testing |
$\S$8.1 - 8.3 | Day 15, Hypothesis Testing Framework and Statistical Errors | |
| 16 | Hypothesis Tests for Claims About a Single Population Mean | $\S$8.6, 8.7 | Day 16, Hypothesis Testing for a Single Population Mean | |
| 17 | Hypothesis Tests for Claims About a Single Population Proportion | $\S$8.8 | Day 17, Hypothesis Testing for a Single Population Proportion | HW 7 |
| 18 | Inference in Excel and Inference Workshop | |||
| 19 | Inference for Comparisons of Two Population Means | $\S$9.1 - 9.4 | Day 19, Inference for Comparisons of Two Population Means | |
| 20 | Inference for Comparisons of Two Population Proportions | $\S$9.5 | Day 20, Inference for Comparisons of Two Population Proportions | HW 8 |
| 21 | Inference Workshop | |||
| 22 | Group Exam II | |||
| 23 | Individual Exam II | |||
| 24 | Inference for Categorical Variables with More than Two Levels (Chi-Squared Tests) | $\S$10.1, 10.2, 10.4, 10.5 | Day 24, Inference on MultiClass Categorical Variables (Chi-Squared Tests) | HW 9 |
| 25 | Inference for Comparing Means Across Multiple Populations (ANOVA) | $\S$11.1, 11.2, 11.4 | Day 25, Comparisons of Many Means with ANOVA | HW 10 |
| 26 | Linear Regression | $\S$12.1 - 12.7 | HW 11 | |
| 27 | Review | |||
| 28 | Final Exam, Part A | |||
| 29 | Final Exam, Part B (Optional) |