Statistics

The course is divided into four sections: Gathering and exploring data: This section covers various ways of compiling and presenting data (descriptive statistics), an introduction to gathering data is also given. Probability, probability distributions and sampling distributions: This section defines the concept of probability and introduces students to the laws of probability. The concepts of probability distributions and random variables is introduced as well as some of their properties. This section addresses the way in which a sample estimate, for example the sample mean, varies randomly between samples taken from the same population. This section also provides a foundation on which subsequent course segments are based. Inferential statistics: This section gives students an introduction to the properties of a point estimate for population means and proportions. Students are also taught how to construct and interpret a confidence interval. An introduction to a number of central concepts in hypothesis testing is also provided. Analyzing associations: This section introduces the methods used to analyze the association between categorical variables.