Question 1

Applying what you have learned.... When politicians make claims that we need to spend a large amount of money to achieve a goal, the claim is often made without legitimate evidence to support a claim that a given program will have a particular result.  Let's say that a politician wants to implement a nation-wide education program.  The politician gave four examples of schools that used the program: scores at the schools increased 0.5, 1, 2, and 2.5 points respectively (the nation-wide average of the scores is 70).  The politician gave no additional evidence about the effectiveness of the program.

Your task: What questions or comments would you have pertaining to the statistical claim made by the politician? You might inquire about the sample, the sampling methods, the full population, the sampling distribution of the mean, and whatever would be useful to more accurately or precisely describe the effectiveness of the program.  At the end of your post, state whether you would conclude that the program will increase scores nation-wide.

Note that it is a separate question of whether it is "worth it" to effect change by taking money from people in the form of taxes to pay for a program.  Other than (optionally) saying that you think the statistics can or can not answer such a question, the "worth it" question is not part of this discussion.

Question 2

1. Learning Journal Reflective Comments:

Write short reflective comments or notes about your learning activities during the week. It is highly recommended that you make these entries on a daily basis. You will be assessed on the completeness of your Learning Journal, and the quality of your self-reflection.

You should date each entry, and use clear titles and sub-headings.  These entries should be brief, direct sentences indicating quick comments or notes such as:

* when you completed each step in the Learning Guide during the week,

* any problems or unexpected events that occurred during the week (including problems understanding new or old material), and

* any other noteworthy that might affect your performance in this class.

There is no need to include personal information or details of family events, but be sure to mention the existence of any situations that will positively or negatively affect your ability to focus on the classwork.

2. Vocabulary and R functions

a) What is a sampling distribution (include an APA citation)?   _________

b) What is the Law of Large Numbers?________

3) Describe in your own words (do not directly quote any source) the difference between the distribution of a sample and the sampling distribution.  Use an example in which the original population has a binomial distribution.  You will probably use concepts from the book or another source, so be sure to cite any concepts that come from such sources (even if you paraphrase).