All assignments are to be submitted as text-only email or posted on
the web and submitted by email
containing the URL of the
assignment to:
with absolutely no attachments. No assignments will
be accepted late.
No assignments will be accepted on paper. No assignments will be
accepted on diskettes.
An
assignment is late if the email is sent after the start of the class at
which it is due.
The grade for the assignment will be sent back to the email address from
which the
assignment email was sent. In the case of group assignments in which
multiple students
are involved, one student should be the sender of the email and the other
students should
be listed both in the email "CC:" list and in the body of the
message.
Students should check this page frequently for updates.
Assignment #1, assigned Thursday, 2 September 2004, due Thursday,
9 September 2004.
Using the arcib.dowling.edu account you have been given and the
instructions you have been given in class, create a
small web page in
your arcib.dowling.edu account in public_html/index.html that says "Web
site of <your_name>
under construction", where <your_name> is replaced by your
first name.
Send an email when your page is ready to be viewed.
Write notes on what you figured out in the first part of this
assignment in your notebook and bring it with you on Thursday, 9 September
2004.
Record clear instructions in your notebook on how to connect to
arcib.dowling.edu, how to edit a file and how to terminate the connection.
Read Chapters 1 of the Valiela text, Chapters 1 and 2 of
the Baird text and Chapter 1 of the Fisher text. Prepare notes in
your notebook on how to handle the exercises in Chapter 2 of the Baird text.
(Hint:
you may be asked about this material).
Prepare detailed notes in your notebook on
a scientific experiment you think you could perform.
Be sure to state an hypothesis to be tested.
Be prepared to discuss your proposal in class.
There will be no class on 16 September 2004
Assignment #2, assigned Thursday, 9 September 2004, due Thursday,
23 September 2004.
Read Chapters 2 of the Valiela text, Chapter 3 of
the Baird text and Chapter 2 of the Fisher text. Prepare notes in
your notebook on how to handle the exercises in Chapter 3 of the Baird text.
(Hint:
you may be asked about this material).
Based on the notes your prepared last time
and the discussion in class, prepare a description of
a scientific experiment you will perform and
put that description on your web site.
Be sure to state an hypothesis to be tested,
how you will test the hypothesis, any
models you will use, and observations
you will make and any controls you will
use, and other details of a plan to
carry out your experiment.
Be prepared to discuss your proposal in class.
Assignment #3, assigned Thursday, 23 September 2004, due Thursday,
30 September 2004.
Read Chapters 3 of the Valiela text, Chapter 4 of
the Baird text and Chapter 3 of the Fisher text. Prepare notes in
your notebook on how to handle the exercises in Chapter 4 of the Baird
text.
(Hint:
you may be asked about this material).
Assignment #4, assigned Thursday, 30 September 2004, due Thursday,
7 October 2004.
Read Chapters 4 of the Valiela text, Chapter 5 of
the Baird text and Chapter 4 of the Fisher text. Prepare notes in
your notebook on how to handle the exercises in Chapter 4 of the Baird
text.
(Hint:
you may be asked about this material).
Take a coin, toss it 100 times and record a 0 when it comes tails
and a 1 when it comes up heads. Record the 100 numbers in your
notebook. Compute the estimated mean and the estimated standard
deviation of your results and record those values in your notebook.
Now, using exactly the same set of numbers, compute the means and
estimated standard deviations of the first 50 numbers and of the
second 50 numbers, and record those 4 values in your notebook.
Express an opinion in your notebook as to whether there is a
significant differences among the three estimated means you have
computed. Be prepared to discuss this in class.
Assignment #5, assigned Thursday, 7 October 2004, due Thursday,
14 October 2004.
Read Chapters 5 of the Valiela text, Chapter 6 of
the Baird text and Chapter 5 of the Fisher text. Prepare notes in
your notebook on how to handle the exercises in Chapter 6 of the Baird
text.
(Hint:
you may be asked about this material).
Using what you have just read in Valiela, prepare notes
in your notebook of the essential elements you would need to
include in a scientific paper about the experiment and data
collected on tossing a coin on the previous assignment.
(Warning, we are headed towards an assignment you will
have to submit, so don't fall behind on this).
Assignment #6, assigned Thursday, 14 October 2004, due Thursday,
21 October 2004.
Read Chapters 6 of the Valiela text, Chapter 7 of
the Baird text and Chapter 6 of the Fisher text.
Using what you have read in Valiela last time,
what you have just read in Valiela and in Baird (on scientific
writing in the large), and the
notes you prepared notes in your notebook (on scientific writing
in the small) write a
4-6 page scientific paper on the experiment and data
collected on tossing a coin on the earlier assignment.
Assignment #7, assigned Thursday, 21 October 2004, due Thursday,
21 October 2004.
Read Chapters 7 of the Valiela text and Chapter 7 of the Fisher text.
Last time you studied the least-squares fitting
technique. Determine the day of the week on which your birthday
occurred for the past 7 years, and record Sunday as 0, Monday
as 1, Tuesday as 2, Wednesday as 3, Thursday as 4, Friday as
5 and Saturday as 6. Treat the year as the independent
variable, and this numeric day of the week as the dependent
variable. Do a least-squares fit of a straight line to
this data and record the information about this fit in
your notebook. Be prepared to discuss. See appendix A in
Baird as needed.
Assignment #8, assigned Thursday, 28 October 2004, due Thursday,
4 November 2004.
Read Chapters 8 and 9 of the Valiela text.
Last time we started a look at tabular and graphical presentation
of data. In the reading you are doing you are considering more
on those issues. Take the linear fit you did for your
birthday and explore the alternate presentations of this
data afforded by Excel. Prepare one best presentation of
that data and the line that fits, put it in your notebook
and bring it to class next time.
Be prepared to discuss.
Assignment #9, assigned Thursday, 4 November 2004, due Thursday,
11 November 2004.
Read Chapters 10 of the Valiela text and 8 of the Fisher text.
Consider the graph on Figure 8.2 of the Fisher text.
Prepare notes in your notebook about the data, the fit,
and the presentation in this figure and the relationship
to the text and be prepared to discuss.
Assignment #10, assigned Thursday, 11 November 2004, due Thursday,
18 November 2004.
Read Chapters 11 of the Valiela text and 9 of the Fisher text.
Review Chapter 9 of Fisher in light of what you have read in
Chapter 11 of Valiela, and write a 2-4 pages of single-spaced
well-organized commentary.
There is no class on Thursday 25 November. You will do a final
presentation of your project in class immediately after the Thanksgiving
holiday. Details to follow.
Assignment #11, assigned Thursday, 18 November 2004, due Thursday,
2 December 2004.
Read the coda and appendices in Fisher.
Prepare a 15-20 minute in-class presentation of your semester project for
Thursday 2 December 2004. We will attempt to provide a computer
projector and an overhead projector, but you must be ready to
do your presentation even if none of the technology works. Prepare
7 copies of a handout of your presentation. The handout must
contain appropriate bibiography and references. Otherwise it should
have the same content as your oral presentation.
Presentations may spill over to the class
meeting on 8 December 2004, but the rest of that meeting will be
for final review.
Final: The final for this course wil be held in class
on Thursday, 16 December 2004, from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm in KSC 126.
The final will be open book, open notes. During the final I will
borrow your notebook briefly to review and grade it.
Updated 10 November 2004.