STAT 340, Fall 2014
Professor Andrew Bray
Clapp 401A
abray@mtholyoke.edu
Does smoking cause cancer? How do we know this? Is there a gender wage gap after controlling for education and experience? How is this quantitative argument made? This course covers the beautiful and useful tool of regression, which is the central technique of statistical modeling. By the end of this course you will be able to
This course will utilize matrix notation, so students that have taken linear algebra will be well-prepared. Those who have yet to take linear algebra will be able to pick up when they need through a short introduction in class and through self-study.
Modern statistical analysis is done in a computing environment, so this course has a strong computational focus. The tool we will be using is the R language, which is free and open-source and can also be accessed via the Mt. Holyoke RStudio server by pointing a browser to https://rstudio.mtholyoke.edu/. If this is your first time using R, don’t fear, it’s fairly quick to learn. I can recommend some resources to aid in self-study.
The textbook for this course is A Modern Approach to Regression with R. The book is available for $25 through the Springer link website, accessible through an on-campus internet connection. The author’s website contains all of the data sets that are used as well as the R-code needed to generate all of the plots.
| Component | Grade Proportion |
|---|---|
| participation | 5 |
| homework | 20 |
| activities | 15 |
| exam | 20 |
| project | 40 |
Think of your classmates as your learning community and it’s important that you’re an active member. You’re expected to participate to in-class discussions, collaborate with your group members during activities, and contribute to your group project.
There will be weekly homework assignments, due at the beginning of class on Friday. You are encouraged to work with others, but each student must write their own response/code and list the names of their collaborators at the top.
Each class there will be an activity that will be done either in small groups or individually. This will be due at the end of class.
There will be one exam in this course which will occur around Thanksgiving break. It will be a comprehensive exam that will cover the conceptual, mathematical, and computational aspects of this course.
Each group of three students will complete a research project during the term, and you will present your results in a written report and oral presentation. We’ll talk a lot more about the project as the semester proceeds. The project can be broken down into three components:
We will discuss the project in detail but in the meantime, start thinking of areas of application that are really interesting to you and how you can access data that relates to that area.
Extra credit is available in several ways: attending an out-of-class lecture (as will be announced) and writing a short review of it; pointing out a substantial new mistake in the book or a homework exercise; drawing our attention to an interesting data set or news article; etc. The extra credit is applied when a student is near the boundary of a letter grade.
No late homeworks or activites will be accepted, though your lowest grade in each will be dropped.
Your attendance in class is crucial. We are all going to learn this material together, so we need to have everyone present and working. I will make accommodations for an unavoidable absence if you notify me. One necessary absence during the semester is not unusual; having more than two is uncommon.
Much of this course will operate on a collaborative basis and you are expected and encouraged to work together with a partner or in small groups to study, complete homework assignments, and prepare for exams. However, every word that you write must be your own. Copying and pasting sentences, paragraphs, or blocks of R code from another student is not acceptable and will receive no credit. No interaction with anyone but the instructors is allowed on exams.
If you have a disability and would like to request accomodations, please contact AccessAbility Services, located in Wilder Hall B4, at (413) 538-2646 or accessability-services@mtholyoke.edu. If you are eligible, they will give you an accomodation letter which you sould bring to me as soon as possible.
The administrative side of this course resides on moodle. That is where you’ll submit your work and where you’ll be able to check your grades. The content for the course will be stored on a separate website that is in development. Stay tuned!
The use of the R statistical environment with the RStudio interface (downloadable from rstudio.org) is thoroughly integrated into the course. We’ll also be using R through a version of RStudio accessible on the web at http://rstudio.mtholyoke.edu. This software is also installed on many computer labs on campus. It is free software that can be installed on your own machine (download information can be found at http://r-project.org). It will be helpful to bring a laptop to class, to be able to follow along with some of the examples that we run and work through in class.
There will likely be help available in the evenings for things related to R. Details will be announced soon.
If you’d like to talk through questions you have related to this course or statistics in general, please come by my office hours. My office is Clapp 401A, located two doors down from our classroom.
I’m also generally available in the afternoons, so feel free to drop by outside of my office hours. I’m also available by email: abray@mtholyoke.edu