Instructor: Yafeng Lin
Email: ylin7@tigers.lsu.edu
Office: Stubbs 104
Office hours: T, TH 10:30-11:30 and by appointment
Class meets T & TH 9:00-10:20am @ 0214 Coates Hall
Lab section 1 meets W 1:30-3:20pm @ 102 Stubbs Hall
Lab section 2 meets W 3:30-5:20pm @ 102 Stubbs Hall
Required Textbook:
Social Statistics for a Diverse Society, 7th edition, 2014. Author: Chava Frankfort-Nachmias and Anna Leon-Guerrero.
Course Description:
This course is an introduction to statistical methods. Statistical topics and techniques covered during this semester include: descriptive statistics, measures of central tendency and variability, probability, statistical inference, hypothesis testing, chi-square, and association. This class is not as math-intensive as you think! Although mathematical calculations will be necessary, it will be more important to be able to understand and explain the results of your calculations. That is the #1 skill that you will be able to take away from this class. We will work on ways to organize and describe data then we will transition to using what we know about specific data to answer research questions and practical problems. The topics, examples, questions, etc. will deal with social science research however the skills we work on can be applied to any type of job that requires working with quantitative data.
Grading: Your grades will be determined based on homework, lab quizzes, 2 exams, and bonus
Homework: Weekly homework will be assigned based on our most recent class topic. These assignments will count towards 20% of your final grade. Homework will consist of problems from your textbook that involve calculations and applying chapter concepts to real-life research questions.
Lab Quizzes: Quizzes will be given in lab and count towards 20% of your final grade. Quiz questions will also be based on the most recent lecture topic and will either be true / false, multiple