Intro to Course

“Statistics are used much like a drunk uses a lamppost: for support, not illumination.”

- Andrew Lang

• ~30 person waitlist
• 60 max enrollment (registrar)
  • 54 undergraduates
  • 6 graduates
• 6 extra slots will be created (total: 66 students)
• Passing out list for those not in course
  • Fill in name and email: e.g. Drew LaMar (mdlama@wm.edu)
  • Fill in requested lab time: Put “Either” if you are able to do either one
• If you hear from me today, you are getting a slot
• If you DO NOT hear from me today, the course is full

• …that meet Biology math requirement:
  • Calculus II (Math 132 or 112)
  • Intro to Quantitative Biology (Math 325 + lab)
• …outside of biology on statistics:
  • BUAD 231, MATH 106, ECON 307, PSYC 301, SOCL 353, MATH 351, or KINE 394

• Instructor: M. Drew LaMar (mdlama@wm.edu)
  • Office hour: M 3:30-4:30 or by appointment
    
• Teaching/Lab Assistant: Lu Sevier (lmsevier@email.wm.edu)
• Labs (Required):
  • Section 1: W 2-3:50 (Small Physics Lab 233)
  • Section 2: R 3-4:50 (Millington Hall 23)
• Prerequisite: BIOL 220, BIOL 225 and MATH 111/131
• Required texts:
  
  • “The Analysis of Biological Data” (2^nd edition), by Whitlock and Schluter
  • “Experimental Design for the Life Sciences” (3^rd edition), by Ruxton and Colegrave

• Uploaded on Blackboard each week on Wednesdays by 11:00 am
• Grade will be a combination of the three C’s:
  • Completion
  • Correctness
  • Clarity
• Two lowest homework grades will be replaced by your two highest homework grades
• Homework worth 30% of your grade
• No late homework will be accepted under any circumstances

• Learning skills in Data Science
• Software: R
• Labs due on Wednesdays by 11:00 am (1 week)
• Many labs on DataCamp website (www.datacamp.com)
  • Purchase a student account ($9/month - $27 for 3 months)
  • 1^st course free (Intro to R)
  • Join classroom DataCamp group:
    https://www.datacamp.com/groups/63eb068b6f1b22359701293142d574ca21bd87be/invite
• Lowest lab grade replaced by highest lab grade
• Attendance will be taken!
• Labs worth 20% of your grade

• Three in-class midterms (subject to change):
  • Monday, February 22
  • Friday, March 18
  • Friday, April 15
• Each midterm worth 10% of your grade
• Option: Final exam grade can replace lowest midterm grade
• No make-ups will be given!

• Assigned most days for the following class period
• Will be given online
• Worth 5% of your grade

• Goal: Accomplish something that lives on beyond this class and makes an educational contribution
• You will pick a published dataset and modify it for educational use
• Worth 5% of your grade
• More details forthcoming…

• Can we know reality with certainty?
• Is anything certain or known?
• What is evidence?
• What is data?
• What is statistics?

“50 years of Data Science,” by David Donoho

• Section 1: Today's Data Science Moment (p. 4)
• Section 2: Data Science 'versus' Statistics (pp. 4-10)
• Section 8: The Full Scope of Data Science (p. 22)
  • Section 8.1: The Six Divisions (pp. 22-25)

Ruxton & Colegrave:

• Chapter 1: Why you should care about design (pp. 1-7)

QUIZ ONLINE DUE BEFORE FRIDAY CLASS

Whitlock & Schluter (tentative - possible snow day):

• Practice Problems (do NOT turn these in): #1, 3, 4, 9, 12
• Assignment Problems (do turn these in): #14, 16-20 (all), 24

Ruxton & Colegrave:

• Chapter 1: Q 1.1-1.5 (do turn these in)

1. Join the class DataCamp group

2. DataCamp - Introduction to R (free) https://www.datacamp.com/courses/free-introduction-to-r