Communicating Quantitative Information
Date Class: Monday, 12:30am to 2:10pm
Homework
Class: Thursday 12:30am to 2:10pm
Homework
--, 9/4
Labor Day


Introductions. Blackboard. More women murdered on the job. (percentages, 'what else?', context). Pre-SATS
Enroll in Blackboard. Start postings.
9/8, 9/11

Course theme(s): Ask questions: what is the (operational) definition? What is the denominator? What is the ... context? What is a reasonable answer?
Testing. Large number of False positives.

Postings
Everyone to take the PSAT. (measures of centrality). Educational High Stake testing (measures of centrality, continued)
Burden on taxpayer of library bond.
Postings, Find reports on local test scores and make extra posting.
9/15,9/18
Unit pricing. Spreadsheets and graphing  COMPUTER LAB
Postings.
Was the Lottery better when run by the Mob? (fair bets, expected value)
Postings, Find reports on lottery.
9/22,9/25
Analyzing games (chance, memory, logic, mixture) Postings.
Probability. Games of Chance. Iraqi voting. Primary voting.
Postings.
9/29, 10/2
Smoking risks. Hormone Replacement Therapy. Preview on sampling. Correlations. Diagrams and charts for communicating risk.  Postings. Prepare diagram(s).
Presentations of diagrams. Everyone dies. Dying young[er] versus bad breath. Car versus airplane accidents. (Immediate risk. Cumulative risk. Reported incidences.)
Postings.
10/6, -- Electoral vote maps. Re-districting. Minority districts


Postings. No class: religious observance for teacher.
Access district maps, news stories. Postings.
10/13,10/16
Pre-Election Predictions.   (margin of error, confidence value, p=.05, p=.01)
Postings.
Exit polls (models of population, sample coverage).
Review on-line guide.
Post topic for Project I.
10/20,10/23
Review for midterm.

Study for midterm
MIDTERM
Work on Project I (report and presentation)
10/27,10/30
Go over midterm
How to keep digital photos? (representations, standards)
work on project, postings
Computer lab for Excel. Maintain weight. Results from midterm. Work on Project I (report and presentation)
11/3, 11/6
Guessing on tests. Out-of-wedlock babies. (accessing Census data). 
Complete Project I.
Present Project I. (Everyone be prepared to present.)
Postings
11/10,11/13
Superintendent's Pay. Cost of programs. (net present value. Time value of money. Return on investment). Costs of Library Bond issue. Postings

Computer lab for Excel. Mortgages. Home Equity


Postings.
11/17, 11/20
The pension problem. (taxes, insurance, investment options, life expectancy, Social Security).  Stocks. Bonds. Index funds.
Medical insurance options.
Postings.

Too Many Adjuncts?

Sports records--keep being set? Significant digits. Asymptotic trends. 




11/24, --

Pre-Challenger flight data. Tufte: on dimensions. Napoleon's march. Bad/fake bar charts. Connecticut driving law.

Postings. Go on-line, find and do retirement exercise for yourself and/or parent(s) OR use my on-line characters.. Make a posting on the experience. DO NOT INCLUDE FINANCIAL DETAILS. Thanksgiving Holiday Post topic for Project II.
Extra credit: Go to Tufte site and post report on 1 (unique) topic. Extra credit: Get question on Ask Tufte site.
12/1,12/4
The 'crow flies' versus 'streets and avenues'. How much does speeding benefit?  Survey of India.
How big is Greenland? How long is the coast line? (Map projections. Fractal dimension.)
Find alternative types of map projections. Postings.
Decision making.
Optimization (constraints versus objective function)

Complete Project II (Paper and informal presentation or formal presentation (charts and handouts)
12/8,12/11
 Presentations. (Everyone be prepared to present.)
Prepare for final: study guide
Presentations. Origami if there is time.  
12/15
12noon to 2:30 FINAL Take post-course survey on Blackboard Happy holidays

Grade allocation

Original Blackboard postings on news stories 15
Responses to other postings. MUST POST EVERY WEEK. 10
Spreadsheet and graphing exercises 10
Project I: story re-write 10
Midterm 10
Project II: story re-write or article on one of lessons
15
Class room exercises & diagram homework 10
Final 20