Degrees

MA 118 Introductory Statistics and Data Analysis Course Objectives

1. To develop quantitative skills necessary for analyzing and summarizing data.
2. To gain a working knowledge of descriptive statistical methods and their applications.
3. To develop an understanding of probability and probability distributions, particularly the normal distribution.
4. To acquaint students with the concept of hypothesis testing and to distinguish between descriptive and inferential statistics.
5. To acquaint students with graphical techniques and the statistical methods used to analyze relationships between variables.
6. To enable students to realize that statistics is fun!
7. To define statistics, discuss data types, contrast qualitative and quantitative data, and examine common applications of data analytical methods using real-world examples and data.
8. To develop procedures for listing and grouping quantitative data, both in tabular and graphical formats.
9. To present basic descriptive statistical measures of location (mean, median, mode) and variability (range, variance, standard deviation).
10. To introduce the concept of probability and probability distributions, including the binomial and normal distributions.
11. To illustrate the concept of random samples and sampling distributions (of the mean) as a transition from descriptive and inferential statistics.
12. To distinguish between a sample and a population.
13. To calculate point and (confidence) interval estimates of the mean of a sample.
14. To present methods for hypothesis testing of differences between means (one and two sample populations).
15. To present methods for analyzing enumeration data, as opposed to measurement data.
16. To describe (via calculation and graphs) statistical relationships between two variables.