Syllabus

Fall, 2013

I will be on campus most weekdays. You are welcome to call or come and find me in my office or lab (Harned Hall 301) at any time. Although there is always a chance that I may have something under way which can not be interrupted, I can usually stop and help. Additional means of contacting me are the phone (number above) and email (pganter@tnstate.edu or just click on the "email Me" buttons on any of my web pages).

Compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act:

The Department of Biological Sciences, in conjunction with the Office of Disabled Student Services, makes reasonable accommodation for qualified students with medically documented disabilities. If you need an accommodation, please contact TSU's Disabled Student Services Office at 963-7400 (phone) or 963-5051 (fax), preferably in the first week of class.  You can view elibilility information and register for services online at: http://www.tnstate.edu/disabilityservices/

Course Description:

• Credit Hours: This course is designed for three hours per week (3 credit hours) of lecture.
• Prerequisites: MATH 1040 (Precal Math 1), BIOL 1110 & BIOL 1120 (Intro to Biology I and II), BIOL 2120 (Genetics), BIOL 2110 (Cell Biology).
• Catalog Description. An introduction to statistical methods that are of particular interest to biologists for experimental and observational study design and interpretation.

Course Objectives:

Below are a general set of objectives for this course.  A complete set of objectives can be found at on its own Course Objectives webpage, Just click on the link in the previous sentence to go there.  You should use these objectives when studying for examinations.

This is an introductory statistical course for biology majors. The course will introduce elementary methods for presenting biological data in summary form, analyzing biological data, and designing experiments. It is not a mathematics course and so will not stress derivations of formulae but, rather, will emphasize the application of statistical ideas and methods to the design and interpretation of biological experiments and comparative data. The student will be able to assess a situation involving data analysis, state the nature of the biological question and the null and alternative hypotheses proposed, decide on the correct statistical procedure to test the null hypothesis and the assumptions of the test used, calculate the statistic, assess its statistical significance, and interpret the data in light of the calculated result. Assessment of a student's performance will be done through the use of problem-oriented, in-class tests, successful completion of assigned homework problems, and their ability to present problem solutions to the class during problem-solving sessions. At the completion of the course, students will be able to:

• calculate summary statistics
• calculate common probability distributions and apply those calculations to solve problems based on biological studies
• randomly allocate experimental units to treatments and apply this technique to solve problems based on biological studies
• calculate the distribution of observations about the mean based on the assumption of normality and apply those calculations to solve problems based on biological data
• calculate the distribution of sample means about the mean and apply those calculations to solve problems based on biological data
• design simple biological experiments
• compare two means (from paired and unpaired data) using both parametric and non-parametric methods and use those methods to test hypotheses
• analyze categorical data to test both goodness-of-fit and contingency hypotheses
• compare more than two means using analysis of variance methods and use those methods to test hypotheses derived from both single-factor and two-factor experimental designs
• calculate least-squares regression lines and apply those calculations to solve problems based on biological studies.

The course follows the organizational plan of the textbook.

Course Requirements:

This course is intended for upper division biology students.  Thus, each student has had extensive experience in taking and successfully completing college courses.  With this assumption in mind, material is presented in several ways, with considerable overlap.  The primary source for the student is the TEXTBOOK. The second source of information is lecture, which is supplemented with material on the course website (http://www.tnstate.edu/ganter).   Not all of the information in the text can be presented in lecture but the student is responsible for all of the information in the text (except material specifically excluded during lecture) and anything added in lecture.  The lectures are intended to give an overview of the material and cover material from the book that bears repetition and close reading: complex ideas and mathematical formalizations of ideas and hypotheses.  Time will be given in each lecture for questions stemming from the reading and problems assigned.  The third means of communication will be contact with the lecturer outside of class.  This can be done in person (note office hours above), over the phone (phone number above, leave a message or keep calling), or through email. To reiterate, the student is responsible for material in the assigned readings and supplemental materials from the website as well as material presented in lecture.

Homework: Each lecture topic will be accompanied by a homework assignment (problems assigned from the book and listed in the web page corresponding to that lecture or in supplementary web pages).  After presentation of the material in a chapter during one lecture period, we will follow that with a problem-solving session during the next lecture period.  Do not feel that you must confine yourself to working only on problems listed in the lectures.  ONE OF THE MOST PERVASIVE AND HARMFUL MYTHS IN EDUCATION IS THAT LEARNING MATH REQIRES NO PRACTICE.  THIS IS NOT TRUE AND THOSE WHO DO NOT PRACTICE THE MATERIAL IN THIS COURSE ALMOST ALWAYS FAIL THIS COURSE.  If you need additional practice, more problems on the topic can always be found in the book.  Note that some textbook problems have solutions printed in the back of the textbook. Which problems are discussed in class will depend on requests from students. All homework assignments will be collected.

Special Note:  Because doing homework is vital to successfully completing this course, completion of homework is a required prerequsite for the tests.  Specifically:  NO ONE WHO HAS NOT COMPLETED ALL HOMEWORK FOR THE CHAPTERS ON WHICH A TEST IS BASED WILL BE ALLOWED TO TAKE THE TEST.  Even more simply put: NO HOMEWORK, NO TEST.  Since incomplete homework is not a valid excuse for missing a test, no one who misses a test shall be given the opportunity to take the test at a later time.  Vaid excuses include illness, death or illness of a dependent or close family member, court dates, etc. and must be properly documented.  The requirement that homework be done before taking a test is simply a recognition of the fact that it is a waste of time to take the test without doing the homework.

You should be aware that the material in the course is truly cumulative.  Concepts and methods presented in the first lecture are necessary to understand the material presented in the last lecture.  Thus, it is very important to keep up by both reading and doing problems. Reading the material alone will not be enough to allow you to move forward as new material is presented. IN THIS COURSE, UNDERSTANDING IS ACHIEVED THROUGH DOING PROBLEMS, I.E. THROUGH PRACTICE.  EXPERIENCE HAS DEMONSTRATED THAT A FAILURE TO DO THE PROBLEMS LEADS TO POOR PERFORMANCE ON TESTS AND TO INCREASED DIFFICULTY WITH SUBSEQUENT MATERIAL.

Evaluation:

There will be four exams in class on the days noted in the lecture schedule.  Exams will cover only the material presented since the previous exam. Exams are open book and open note and will require a calculator.  Make-up exams will be given only if the student has an excuse from the Office of Student Affairs.  As per Tennessee State University policy, attendance is mandatory and a record of attendance will be kept.  Excessive absences will be reported to the Office of Admissions and Records, again as per school policy.  Attendance makes no contribution to earning points toward the final grade.

Since the focus of the course is problem solving, students are given a set of problems from the textbook to solve as a homework assignment plus a set of suggested problems.  There will be time devoted in class to working on solutions to assigned problems.  There is not enough time to examine all assigned problems in class, so which problems get classroom attention will depend on requests from students.   Homework will be collected and graded.

The final examination will be comprehensive. All dates for both quizzes and lecture examinations are subject to change.  Changes will be announced in class.  The distribution of points one can earn toward a final grade is:

Exam Average	70%
Homework Completion:	15%
Final:	15%

Policy on plagiarism and cheating: All problems on examinations are open-book. Some material may be evaluated with questions and that portion of the examination will not be open-book.  Calculators are allowed but the statistical functions may not be used.  No cell phones are allowed in class during exams or lectures.  Cheating (accepting or offering help from or to another student) on exams will result in a 0 grade for that exam.  The Department Chair and Dean will be informed of the occurrence.

Disclaimer: The instructor reserves the right to change the occurrence, timing and content of lectures, homework exercises, and examinations.

Schedule of Lectures and Assignments:

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Last updated on August 22, 2013