1 Day 1 (June 1)

1.2 Course format

  • Previous course reflections and changes
  • My philosophy and what I can offer
    • Is the course right for you?
    • How to learn statistics?
    • How to spend your time?
    • A prediction about the future
  • Course design
    • Phase 1-Crash course in spatio-temporal statistics
      • Standard lectures with a good amount of reading
      • Finish early july
    • Phase 2-Problem based learning and advanced topics
      • Phase 2 is designed to mimic research
      • Tour of more advanced methods that fit within the “regression and ANOVA tool box such as neural networks.
  • Grades?!
    • Bi-weekly journal (40%)
    • Assignments (20%)
    • Final project (40%)
  • How to best interact with me
    • Depends on your career path
    • Easy to access online once we are established
    • Please make good use of our time (e.g., zoom vs. in-person)
  • How to best interact with students in this class
    • Huge diversity of majors and professions
    • Huge diversity of skills
    • A comment about your KSU degree and amount of statistics
    • Who is in this class?
    url <- "https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/x8ser8egns2j1cvqj3jxd/students_STAT_705_B.csv?rlkey=fvucxdwyv2wxz08mnz0ioovjq&dl=1"
    df <- read.csv(url)
    
    par(mar=c(13,2,2,2))
    plot(rev(sort(table(df$degreeProgram))),las=2,xlab="",ylab="Number of students",ylim=c(0,5))

1.3 First journal

  • On our first journal assignment (due 6/2/26 at 11:30 am), please include a paragraph or more about your background/history with statistics. You can include this paragraph in the “is there anything else you would like me to know” section.

1.4 Intro to statistical modelling

  • A difficult question
    • “How much money will I have for retirement?”
    • “Am I ruining my life now by over saving for retirement?”
  • What is data?
    • Something in the real world that you can, in some way, observe and measure with or without error
  • What is a statistic?
    • A function of the data
  • What is a model?
    • Mathematical models
    • Statistical models