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Welcome back! Im very excited to have you in class this year. Why am I so excited? Well, for one I usually get excited about teaching about teaching math, but also because we get to study some of the most interesting math stuff this year as a part of the class called Advanced Topics in Math. For the first semester we will focus on statistics; the second semester will include other topics based on student interest. During Fall 2, you will probably be able to choose your math class from a list of options. So what is statistics? Glad you asked! Statistics is the use of numbers to explain our world. People use statistics to show evidence for scientific discoveries, to save lives with new medicine, to put together the best baseball team without spending too much money. Politicians use statistics to try to make you vote for them. Business leaders use statistics to make more money for their companies, and they use statistics to lie about how much money they make so they can make more money. So statistics is very useful. Sounds kinda interesting. Totally. There are many flavors of statistics, but it basically comes down to representing data and making inferences. You will make graphs and tables to represent real data. You will use mean, median, interquartile range, and standard deviation to estimate population percentages. You will search for meaning behind the data, and make models that are used to predict the future and understand the present. Your math problems will come from the real world, and you will use the same tools as the professionals to find the solutions.
Of students surveyed, 64% prefer English and 32% prefer math. The fact that these numbers do not add up to 100 may help explain why.
Grading
When you look at your grade, you should be able to tell which topics youre mastered, and what you need to improve. You will use Engrade to track your progress in the class (you'll get logon information later).
Homework
Homework is a challenge and an adventure. My theory is that homework should give a chance to apply what you learned that day, as well as a chance to ask questions about what you dont understand and expand your knowledge, your language abilities, your thinking abilities, etc.
Plagiarism
When you turn in work to a teacher, he or she expects that the work represents your original thoughts about a topic. If the ideas on your paper actually came from another source, like a friend's paper, website, or book, then these ideas have to be cited. If there is no citation, then it is considered plagiarism, and it will automatically receive a failing grade with possible disciplinary action.