| Date | Class: Monday, 12:30am to 2:10pm |
Homework |
Class: Thursday 12:30am to 2:10pm |
Homework |
| 8/28, 8/31 |
Introductions. Blackboard. More women murdered on the job. (percentages,
'what else?', context). Pre-SATS |
Enroll in Blackboard. Start postings. |
Course
theme(s): Ask questions: what is the (operational) definition? What is
the denominator? What is the ... context? What is a reasonable answer? Testing. Large number of False positives. |
Postings |
| --, 9/7 |
Holiday |
Postings |
Everyone to take the PSAT. (measures
of centrality) |
Postings |
| 9/11,9/14 |
Unit pricing. Spreadsheets and graphing COMPUTER LAB | Postings. |
Educational High Stake testing
(measures of centrality, continued) Burden on taxpayer of library bond. |
Postings Find reports on local test scores and make extra posting. |
| 9/18,9/21 |
Was the Lottery better when run by the Mob? (fair bets, expected value) | Find reports on lottery. Postings. |
Analyzing games (chance, memory, logic, mixture) |
Postings. |
| 9/25,9/28 |
Smoking risks. Hormone Replacement Therapy. (correlations, odds, probabilities, communicating risk. | Postings | Everyone
dies. Dying young[er] versus bad breath. Car versus airplane accidents.
(Immediate risk. Cumulative risk. Reported incidences.) |
Postings Complete and post original diagrams on risk topic, sports topic, etc. |
| 10/2,10/5 | (Religious observance) |
Postings. |
Electoral
vote maps. Re-districting. Minority districts. Presentations of diagrams. |
Access district maps, news stories. Postings. |
| 10/9,10/12 |
Pre-Election Predictions.
(margin of error, confidence value, p=.05, p=.01) |
Postings. |
Exit polls (models of population, sample coverage). |
Review on-line guide. Post topic for Project I. |
| 10/16,10/19 |
Review for midterm. |
Study for midterm |
MIDTERM |
Work on Project I (report and presentation) |
| 10/23,10/26 |
Computer lab for Excel. Maintain weight. Results from midterm. | work on project, postings |
Go over midterm How to keep digital photos? (representations, standards) |
Work on Project I (report and presentation) |
| 10/30,11/2 |
Guessing on tests. Out-of-wedlock babies. (accessing
Census data). |
Complete Project I. |
Present Project I. (Everyone be prepared to present.) |
Postings |
| 11/6,11/9 |
Present Project I. Pre-election polls. |
Postings. Monitor election news. |
Superintendent's
Pay. Cost of programs. (net present value. Time value of money.
Return on investment). Costs of
Library Bond issue. Post-election news. |
Postings. |
| 11/13,11/16 |
Testing for mad cow disease. Decision making. Sports records--keep being set? Significant digits. Asymptotic trends. | Postings |
The
pension problem. (taxes,
insurance, investment options, life
expectancy, Social Security). Stocks. Bonds. Index funds. Medical insurance options. |
Postings. |
| 11/20,-- |
Pre-Challenger flight data. Tufte: on dimensions. Napoleon's march. Bad/fake bar charts. Connecticut driving law. | Go on-line, find and do retirement exercise for yourself and/or parent(s) OR use my on-line characters.. Make a posting on the experience. DO NOT INCLUDE FINANCIAL DETAILS. | Holiday | Post topic for Project II. Extra credit: Go to Tufte site and post report on 1 (unique) topic. Extra credit: Get question on Ask Tufte site. |
| 11/27,11/30 |
Decision making. COMPUTER LAB. Optimization (constrainsts versus objective function) |
Postings. |
The 'crow
flies' versus 'streets and avenues'.
How much does speeding benefit? Survey of India. How big is Greenland? How long is the coast line? (Map projections. Fractal dimension.) |
Complete Project II (Paper and informal presentation or formal presentation (charts and handouts) |
| 12/4,12/7 |
Presentations. (Everyone be prepared to present.) |
Presentations. | Prepare for final: study guide | |
| 12/11? |
Review for final. | Study for final. |
FINAL | Take post-course survey on Blackboard |
| Original Blackboard postings on news stories | 15 |
| Responses to other postings | 10 |
| Spreadsheet and graphing exercises | 10 |
| Project I: story re-write | 10 |
| Midterm | 10 |
| Project II: story re-write or article on one of
lessons |
15 |
| Class room exercises & diagram homework | 10 |
| Final | 20 |