Updates to Ch 2, 3, 5, new exercises in Ch 1, and discussion section notes

November 1st, 2010

We have outlined a plan for the next four months to bring out new content and this is our first release of the series.

  • Ch 1 Problem Set: Many new problems have been added, and several problems have also been modified. This first problem set continues to emphasize critical thinking and applications necessary for a foundational course in statistics. We would like to thank Professor Dave Harrington for his contribution of exercises. A more formal recognition will be extended as we build a framework to recognize new contributors like Professor Harrington.
  • Ch 2: A new subsection 2.3.7 has been added to introduce Bayes' Theorem. This section exploits the connection with tree diagrams and emphasizes Bayes' Theorem as a new tool for analyzing conditional probabilities.
  • Ch 3: Section 3.5 was added for two new discrete models: negative binomial and discrete uniform. We also intend to later add an additional subsection to 3.5: the Poisson model.
  • Ch 5: The Preliminary Edition offered 5.5 as a section called When to retreat. This section has been modified and moved to 5.7 to make room for two new sections. Sections 5.5 and 5.6 introduce the one-way and two-way chi-square tests, respectively.

We also added Discussion section notes to the Downloads page. These offer a pre-built plan in a handout that teachers or assistants can use to facilitate a discussion oriented session. Our target is to offer notes for ten discussion sections before the release of the First Edition in July 2011. While the releases are initially in LaTeX, we will later release Doc versions for wider use.

Our next release on December 1st will emphasize new sections on linear regression, expanded problem sets, two new sets of notes for discussion section, and improvements to this month's releases.