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Unit Outline
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Stat 100 vs. 101 vs. 102 vs. 104
Each course assumes no prior knowledge of statistics
They all cover the same basic statistical concepts (about 3/4 of
the course)s, though they each emphasize different topics
throughout
Stat 104 will cover more material and is more mathematically
rigorous, others are similar level.
Stat 101 will use mostly examples from psychology, general
social/behavioral sciences, and public health.
Stat 102 emphasizes medical and lab science examples
Stat 104 emphasizes examples from economics/finance
Stat 100 is a more general course with a wide-range of examples
More questions: ask after class.
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Kevins Contact Info
My office: Science Center, Room SC-105 (likely to change)
Office Hours (stop in unannounced):
Tues 12:30-1:30pm and Thurs 11:30am-12:30pm
Also by appointment (via email)
Phone numbers:
Statistics Department: (617) 495-5496
My office (SC-105): NA
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Teaching Staff
Teaching Fellows:
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Course Website
Course website:
http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k97307
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Lecture Notes
Paper copies will NOT be handed out at the beginning of
lecture after this week (we will provide copies on Thursday).
Theyre organized in Units: which follow chapters in the
textbook (will diverge a bit at end of semester)
Lecture notes will be posted at least 24 hours in advance
Notes are somewhat concise you are encouraged to add
your own annotations and develop your own notes
Occasionally mistakes appear in lecture notes; corrected
versions will be posted after class
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Class Meetings
Lectures:
Tues & Thurs, 1011:30am, Science Center SC-Hall A
Sections
Optional (but strongly recommended) weekly section to discuss
homework, do extra problems, and review difficult concepts.
No section this week (begin week of Sept 9).
Look for announcement on the course website for permanent times
(OHs too).
SPSS Tutorials
To be held in SC-B09
One on Thursday afternoon and one on Monday afternoon. Times TBD.
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Textbook
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Computing and Calculations
For all exams (and some homework), you will need a
calculator with log, exponential, square-root functions.
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Homeworks
Posted to course website on Fridays:
http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k97307&pageid=icb.page6
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HW Collaboration
You are encouraged to discuss homework with other
students (and with the instructor and TFs, of course), but
you must write your final answers yourself, in your own
words.
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Group Project
Will be a roughly 3-5 page paper of text (graphs, tables,
etc are in addition to that) based on a data analysis of
your choosing.
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Course Grading
Component Weighting1 Weighting2 Weighting3
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So what is statistics?
(and why is it so cool?)
The study of the methods for obtaining, organizing,
analyzing, and interpreting data.
Why bother? Principles provide a framework for
Collecting data and the design of experiments and
observational studies (Design)
Describing and summarizing data (Description)
Drawing inferences about populations as a whole and
predicting future events (Inference)
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Proving Points with Statistics
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Other questions that could be
addressed statistically
Social Sciences
What are the features of online ads that are more likely to capture
your attention?
How (if at all) is happiness associated with income, job
satisfaction, social life, religious beliefs, or political ideology?
Health
Does a smoking ban in bars lower the rate of lung cancer?
How can we study whether a new therapy is better than a standard
therapy for treating depression?
Sports
Is David Ortiz truly a clutch hitter? Is Alex Rodriguez anti-clutch?
Can we predict which teams in the NFL will improve from last
year?
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In Class Exercise: Research
Question about Harvard Students
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Parameters and Statistics
Descriptive statistics: summarize the data in the
actual sample of data.
Inferential statistics: provide predictions or
generalizations about the population based on the
data we collected in the sample.
Parameter: a numerical summary of the population.
For our Harvard study:
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How does this apply to the framework
of Statistical studies (3 parts)?
Design: Study planning Description: Graphical Inference: predictions
and implementation and numerical methods about the population based
for summarizing data on the sample
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Last Word
If you are planning on taking this course, you should
Download and install SPSS from FAS IT:
http://downloads.fas.harvard.edu/download
Go to the course website and follow the SPSS tutorial
document. And/or attend an SPSS tutorial session (the
schedule will be posted on the website later today).
Read through (or at least browse) chapters 1 and 2 in the
text.
Be aware that HW #1 will be posted by the end of the
week (it is due next Friday, Sept. 13th).
Be happy!
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