ECON 242 -- Statistics
Sections A & B, Spring Semester, 2012
Syllabus

Revised: 2012.01.06

Catalog Description: A first course in statistics which introduces descriptive and inferential statistical tools as they apply to economics, management, and the social sciences.

Prerequisites: MATH 110 or above, or consent of instructor.

Course goals: By the end of the semester, you should understand:

• Why you would want to use statistics
• How to approach analyzing data
• What statistical tests to use and when
• How to interpret results of statistical analyses
• How to determine relationships among data items
• The need to question results--your own and others’
• How to use Excel to help with data analysis

Why learn statistics? See the commentary by Clive Thompson in the May, 2010, issue of Wired.

Text: Essentials of Business Statistics, 4th Ed., by Bowerman, O'Connell, Murphree, and Orris; McGraw-Hill, 2012. ISBN:  978-0-07-340182-9 (Book's web site)

Instructor: Dr. Jim Howatt; Office: Olin 304; Phone: 387-1570.  Visit me during my office hours or most any time that my door's open.

Computing your grade: The class assignments are weighted as follows:

• Three Tests: 23.33% each
  
• Homework: 30% overall

Your final grade will be computed as follows:

Grades will not be "curved". 

Schedule: (Note: this schedule may change to adapt to the needs of the class)  

Class Policies/Expectations:

• Attendance:  Attendance does not directly impact your grade.  However, "attending class" means giving 100% attention to the class.  This does not include sleeping, carrying on side conversations, surfing the net, checking e-mail, doing homework for this or other classes, etc.
• Assignments:  All assignments will be posted on Katie.  Deadlines will be posted with the assignments.  Reduced or no credit will be awarded for late submissions.  Reduced or no credit will be awarded for improperly named files and file formats (see next item).
• Uploading Assignments to Katie: Each file that you upload must be named following this convention: "YourLastName-YourFirstName-AssignmentNumber.extension", where the AssignmentNumber is the one shown on Katie (e.g. HW01, EX01, Wk12, etc), and extension is the one appropriate for the type of file that you're uploading (e.g. "doc" or "rtf" for Word documents, "xls" for Excel documents, etc.).
• Collaborative work: I encourage you to discuss class readings and assignments, as well as general approaches to completing those assignments, with your classmates; however, the work that you turn in must be your own (or your team's own).
• Standards of Conduct: Follow the Honor Code and Student Code of Conduct.
• E-mail:  When you send me an e-mail message, include your name, especially if you're turning in an assignment or asking me to take some action on your behalf.  If I don't know who you are, I'll not be able to act on your message.
• Completing assignments: Write legibly.  Put your name at the top of your assignments.  Make sure that your final answer is easily identifiable.  Show your work.  On spreadsheets, label your values.