MATH 171 (Honors) – Statistical Decision Making

MATH 171 is the class that I took to satisfy the quantitative reasoning pillar of the Civitae Core Curriculum. In addition, MATH 171 is a required class for the computer science major. The section that I took was instructed by Dr. Sharon Emerson-Stonnell. In MATH 171, we started by learning statistical terms that we would use for the rest of the semester. Understanding terms like “population”, “sample”, and “simple random sample” is crucial in statistics because these terms are used in most, if not all, statistical tests. After learning the terminology that would be used, we moved on to performing statistical tests for analysis. We started by learning confidence intervals and moved on to hypothesis tests. The class was organized so we spent one day on a test for categorical data and the next class would be on a similar test for numerical data. I really liked this format because it helped me make a clear distinction between the tests in my mind. If we had gone through and done numerical data and categorical data in the same day, I could foresee myself getting the two tests confused since the wording on questions were so similar. On that note, Dr. Emerson-Stonnell emphasized teaching us how to decide which test was appropriate based on the wording of each question and what information was given. When we started a new test, Dr. Emerson-Stonnell identified keywords that appeared in questions that gave away what type of test was to be used. Outside of class, we were responsible for completing daily homework that would reflect what was covered in the previous class. The homework mostly came out of our textbook and was only one or two practice problems. However, even if we were to only submit one or two problems, Dr. Emerson-Stonnell would assign other, optional, problems if we felt that we needed to practice a concept more. I enjoyed this way of giving homework because it would ensure that everybody was reviewing the material and also offered additional opportunities to practice the test. The homework reminded me of how my calculus teacher in high school assigned homework. I feel that this format is effective for me because it allows me to focus on my weak points instead of spending time on concepts that I feel I am strong in. We also took three tests in the class. The tests were typical of a math class, with the format being short answer where all mathematical work was shown. Something that stands out to me is how well Dr. Emerson-Stonnell helped us to review for every test. In addition to uploading practice problems to Canvas, Dr. Emerson-Stonnell would take the entire class period before the test to field questions from the class and explain what would be assessed on the test. I greatly appreciated this because I was able to make a study guide based on the class’ questions and what Dr. Emerson-Stonnell told us would be on the test. This allowed me to focus my studying on what was pertinent for the test.

Because of this class, I was able to gain a new perspective on statistical analysis. Prior to this class, the only statistics that I had been taught were in Algebra I and Algebra II in high school. These short units usually only went over very basic statistics, like finding the mean of a list of data, calculating standard deviation, and reading basic bell-curves and boxplots. This course expanded on these basic concepts greatly. For example, in a statistical t-test, we took numerical data of means and standard deviation and used them to test if there was significant evidence to support a hypothesis. We also used bell-curves to model normal distribution and boxplots in order to see if there was skew or outliers in data that would affect the test. However, this class also explored concepts that I had never seen before. Until this course, I thought that there was no more to statistics other than finding the mean, median, mode, and range of a data set. This course introduced me to confidence intervals and hypothesis tests that were used to analyze the data in a much more advanced way. The tests that we were taught in this class took the basic concepts that I had learned in high school and elevated them to a higher level, in which we would be able to use statistics and find practical conclusions to questions, instead of just finding averages and standard deviations.

Linked above is the second individual paper that I wrote for MATH 171. Over the course of the semester, we were assigned four papers. Two of them were group papers, where we broke off into groups and worked on the paper together, and the last two were individual papers. The two group papers were a good practice of putting statistical terms into written words where anyone could understand it, regardless of the reader’s level of statistical knowledge. I liked the group papers because there was someone that could help clarify the terms in the paper and make them more appealing to someone who had never taken a statistics course, which is not one of my strong suits. In all of the papers, but especially the individual papers, we took practical data from the Longwood community and performed a statistical analysis that would serve a practical purpose. In the paper linked above, I tested if there was a significant difference between the average high temperatures at Lancer Park in the winter and spring semesters. I chose these parameters because I felt that they would have practical value. If there is previous data available, the results of this test can be used to perform a large scale analysis of the effects of global warming on the Longwood community. I feel that by performing tests and assignments like this, it provides a feeling of usefulness. Using data out of a textbook is useful for practice, but it lacks the feeling of usefulness because, most of the time, the results of the test won’t affect our lives. By using data from our community, there was a real feeling that the results could be useful, which, to me, made the assignment much more appealing and gave me a sense of pride. I felt that the results could legitimately help the community instead of just being done for the sake of doing it. In other words, this paper did not feel like “busy work,” I actually felt and understood the practicality of the test.