Syllabus and
Course Contract for
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Instructor: |
W. Joel Schneider |
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Office: |
De Garmo
447 |
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Phone: |
438-8410 |
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e-mail: |
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office hours: |
Mondays 2-3pm |
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Sebastian Pazderski Office Hours |
M 11-noon in the
Psychology
Resource Center in DeGarmo (next
to the lab classroom) |
|
Josh Wondra |
W 10-11 in the
Psychology Resource Center in DeGarmo
(next to the lab classroom) |
Students
develop skills both in statistical reasoning and statistical method by
actively
engaging in the practice of statistics as science. Students will study
important current, psychological issues whose understanding requires a
fundamental knowledge of statistical concepts, in particular,
hypothesis
testing and regression. Controversial topics will be chosen that are
currently
in the news and likely to remain so. Such psychological controversies
are
regularly found in journals and magazines such as American
Psychologist
and Current Directions in Psychological Science.
Reasoning in Psychology Using Statistics uses a classroom/laboratory approach for analysis of data, for hands-on production of data, and for simulation-based learning. According to Cobb (1993, p.4), "the lab approach accords with the movement of statistics back towards its roots in science, and with research in education that demonstrates the importance of active learning." Additionally, the classroom/lab setting allows students to access the vast array of data available through the Internet.
Reasoning in Psychology Using Statistics follows the guidelines developed by the American Statistical Association (ASA) and the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) which suggest that teachers should:
Almost
any introductory social science statistics textbook
will be helpful. Here is one that I used to require:
Social
Statistics
for
a
Diverse Society (3th edition) by Chava
Frankfort-Nachmias & Anna Leon-Guerrero
(Pine
Forge Press, 2002).
The reason I no longer require a textbook is that there are so many
free
statistics resources on the web. A quick search on the search engine of
your
choice will probably bring new ones every day.
I
recommend David
Kenny's free textbook.
Here is another free
statistics textbook.
Here is another.
If you learn best by listening, there are a number of podcasted
introductory
statistics courses. You don't need an iPod to listen to them. You can
listen on
any computer with speakers. Here is one from my alma mater, UC
Berkeley.
MIT has a large number of courses with free content on all kinds of
topics.
Here are downloadable
slides on introductory statistics.
SPSS (Release 16.0) SPSS, Inc. - this software is available on
the classroom computers and on most
other
campus lab computers. You do NOT have to purchase it for the class,
however
if you want a copy for your home computer, student versions are
available at
the student bookstores.
I will also use Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel often and will
sometimes
give you Excel tools for statistics. If you don't have Microsoft
Office, OpenOffice.org offers
a FREE,
high-quality office suite that is compatible with Microsoft Office. Althought OpenOffice
uses a
different format by default, you can save
documents
and spreadsheets in OpenOffice in the same
format
that Microsoft Office users use. A lot of free software is not very
good. OpenOffice is a major exception. You
can also try Google
Docs and Spreadsheets for free.
Required
Materials
"Clicker" or RF Response Card (How to
get one). I explain how I use these in
class in the "Attendence" section below.
Calculator: I haven't used a hand calculator in years (I use Excel for
everything.). However, most students will probably want to use a
calculator for
the course. Any reasonable calculator with a memory button will work.
You are
not permitted to use your cell phone's calculator on exams.
Lecture Notes. A course packet will be available for purchase from PIP,
in the
Bone Student Centre. Make sure that
you do not
purchase Dr. Barone's
Psychology 138, Section 001 packet. They are not the same.
You
are expected to attend every lecture and participate through discussion
and classwork. Lecture and lab attendance
is NOT optional. All
labs are in Room
13
in
DeGarmo. Think of the labs as
scheduled
homework time with a tutor (your GA). If you do not attend a lab, you
can still
the submit lab assignments with a 10% penalty. Since labs are 10% of
your grade
and there are about 23 labs, the penalty is
about
only half a percentage point of your final grade. Don't be fooled,
though.
Getting many small penalties add up quickly and often make the
difference
between 2 grades.
In lectures, from time to time, I will ask questions using the
"Clicker" technology. You must give all your answers in good faith
(i.e., no random or deliberately misleading responses). I will
sometimes use
your responses as data to illustrate data analysis. If the questions
are about
opinions or life history involving personal matters you will always
have the
option of clicking "I prefer not to answer this question." I will
never look at any individual's response to these kinds of questions nor
will I
penalize anyone for choosing not to answer them.
Your class participation grade will be determined by the percentage of
times
that you participated using the Clickers. I will allow 2 unexcused
absences
before it affects the participation grade. You may make up classwork
only if you were absent due to University sanctioned events, documented
illnesses, or documented crises. Make-up assignments will typically be
short
essays.
If you forget your Clicker but you attended, you must do 2 things:
1.
Tell me you forgot your Clicker after class.
2. Email me later telling me that you were in class.
Why
do you need to tell me twice? Telling me in class makes it easy for me
to
believe that you were really there. Telling me by email makes it easy
for me to
give you credit.
Do not use an absent classmate's Clicker to make it seem that the
student was
in attendence. This is dishonest and will
result in an automate failing grade for
everyone involved in the
activity.
Special circumstances may result in reasonable substitutes for missed
assignments.
I reserve the right to change this syllabus as needed throughout the semester. I hope that these changes are few and minor. I will notify you of any changes that I make.
The work necessary to obtain the grade you desire has been outlined here. No additional work will be accepted to increase your grade. Do not come to me at semester's end asking if there is some additional work you can do to increase your grade. At semester's end, there is none.
Please
visit me during my office hours with any questions you have. My job is
to help you learn. If you need
help, get it early; don't wait until you find yourself saying "I'm so
lost
I don't know what to ask!" If you cannot make it to my regular office
hours then, please, make an appointment with me. Talk to me after
class, call
me (438-8410), or e-mail me at: wjschne@mail.ilstu.edu.
Extra assistance
Any
student needing to arrange a reasonable accommodation for a documented
disability should contact Disability Concerns at 350 Fell
Hall, 438-5853 (voice), 438-8620 (TDD).
Your
grade will be determined by weighting your performance on homework,article
assignments, Mallard quizzes, in-class labs,
3 exams, and two projects.
The
grading scheme is not a curve. This is a good thing. This means that
everyone
can get an A if everyone performs well. Of course, this means that
everyone could
fail the course if everyone blows it off. A curve would make it so that
only a
certain percentage can receive high grades and that certain percentage
would
fail the course no matter how well they understand the material.
All labs are due 2 days after they begin at
11:55PM. Thus, Monday labs are are due on Wednesdays at 11:55PM and
Wednesday labs are due Fridays at 11:55PM.
Non-Blackboard labs and homework assignments may
be submitted with a 10% penalty for each day over the due date.
There are no late submissions for Blackboard assignments.
Each exam is worth 200 points (3 Exams x 200 points = 600 total).
Each homework will be averaged to compute a
total
grade that is worth 100 points.
Each lab will be averaged to compute a total grade that is worth 100
points.
The project is worth 100 points.
Class participation is worth 100 points.
Therefore, there is a total of 1000 possible points. Your final semester grade is determined as follows:
Performance Grade
900-1000 A
800-899 B
700-799 C
600-699 D
0-599 F
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Class Dates |
Tentative topic calendar |
Things due |
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WK1 |
1/11 |
Introduction and syllabus
review |
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1/13 |
Measurement and Reliability |
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WK2 |
1/18 |
MLKJ Day (No class, no lab, Tuesday lab also canceled) |
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1/20 |
Measurement and Reliability |
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WK3 |
1/25 |
Frequency Distributions |
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1/27 |
Measures of Central Tendency |
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WK4 |
2/1 |
Variability |
Lab 6 |
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2/3 |
Normal Distribution |
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WK 5 |
2/8 |
Correlation |
Lab 8 |
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2/10 |
Regression |
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WK6 |
2/15 |
Exam 1
(Conceptual part in lecture, computational part in lab) |
Homework 2 (Due at 11:55pm) |
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2/17 |
Basic Probability |
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WK7 |
2/22 |
Sampling Distributions |
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2/24 |
Null and Alternative
Hypothesis Testing |
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WK8 |
3/1 |
Hypothesis Testing |
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WK10 |
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Lab
15 |
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WK11 |
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Review |
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WK12 |
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Link to Spreadsheet Tools |
Homework 4 (Due at 11:55pm) |
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WK13 |
4/5 |
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4/7 |
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WK14 |
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WK15 |
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Chi-Square |
Lab 24 | |
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WK16 |
4/26 | Data analysis in the real world | Work on Project in Lab Homework 5 (Due at 11:55pm) Homework 5 Datafile |
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4/28 |
Review for Conceptual/Lecture
Part of Exam 3 |
Computational
Part of Exam 3 |
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Finals Week |
5/4 |
Exam 3
(Tuesday 5/4 at 1pm in same classroom) |
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