Southern Utah University

Course Syllabus

Southern Utah University
Southern Utah University
Fall Semester 2025

Statistical Inference (Face-to-Face)

MATH 1040-11

Course: MATH 1040-11
Credits: 4
Term: Fall Semester 2025
Department: MATH
CRN: 31621

Course Description

An introduction to the basic concepts and methods of statistical data analysis. Students will summarize and interpret data, evaluate important assumptions, and draw appropriate conclusions based on sample data sets from a variety of disciplines. Topics include descriptive statistics, statistical graphs, probability, discrete and continuous probability distributions, confidence intervals, hypothesis tests with one and two samples, correlation and regression, chi-square tests and one-way ANOVA. (Fall, Spring, Summer) [Graded (Standard Letter)] Prerequisite(s): MATH 1010 or adequate test score within the last two (2) years - Prerequisite Min. Grade: C Prerequisite Test: ACT Math Subscore or Accuplacer Elementary Algebra or ALEKS PPL - Prerequisite Test Score: 23 or 100 or 50 Registration Restriction(s): None General Education Category: Quantitative Literacy

Required Texts

Textbook: Elementary Statistics, 7th edition by Larson, published by Pearson. Available at the SUU Bookstore. Inexpensive used or loose-leaf copies may be found in other places. Don't get the 8th edition because the homework is completely different between editions!

Software: This section is designated as an Excel based course. We'll use both Microsoft Excel and LibreOffice Calc. The latter is free and available for download (Mac, Windows, Linux) at www.libreoffice.org. Microsoft Office 365 (a cloud-based and deprecated version) is available to all SUU students on their MySUU portal page. Various SUU computer labs also have Excel. Please bring your laptop to class.

Learning Outcomes

As a core general education course, this class will give students opportunities to develop skills with respect to several SUU Essential Learning Outcomes, including Quantitative Literacy, Problem Solving, and Communication (see https://www.suu.edu/academics/provost/pdf/elo-definitions.pdf). In addition, the Department of Mathematics has defined five broad learning outcomes as listed below. Students will be expected to master specific aspects of the first four learning outcomes as related to Math 1040.

  • Use standard mathematical techniques to solve computational problems
  • Demonstrate knowledge of fundamental mathematical concepts and results in the core content areas
  • Use content knowledge to solve applied and real-world mathematical problems
  • Communicate mathematics effectively using proper notation and terminology
  • Use logical reasoning to construct clear and concise mathematical proofs

Attendance Policy

This is a four hour class, with (longish) TR lectures each week. Wednesdays are reserved for quizzes (see below). The SUU community places a high priority on your health and the health of those around you. If you are symptomatic or you have an underlying health condition, you are not required to come to a face-to-face class. However, your engagement in this class is required and you can participate by attending face-to-face (if you are healthy) or viewing class videos asynchronously after the fact (on Media Gallery). SUU rules say wearing a mask is optional for face-to-face attendance.

Course Requirements

Homework

Homework is found on the Assignments tab in Canvas, and should be completed prior to the due date/time. You may collaborate on homework (but not merely copy each others answers). Homework will usually be due on Tuesday nights. Only your best 10 assignments will be counted. Please go to Modules—>Before you begin and read/view the homework procedures.

Quizzes

Instead of mid-term exams, there will usually be one quiz per week, offered on Wednesdays in the SUU Testing Center, from 8:30am until 8:00pm. Students that are sick/quarantined or otherwise unable to attend the Testing Center may take a remote version of the quiz using Canvas while being proctored on Zoom by the instructor. Times will be determined as needed. Only your best 10 quiz scores will count towards your grade.

Final Exam

The final exam is proctored by the instructor.

Grading

There are 300 points, comprising 100 from your best ten HW, 100 from your best ten quizzes, and 100 from the final exam (and any extra credit is added on top). The usual college grading scale will apply (93%=A, 90%=A-, 87%=B+, 83%=B, 80%=B-, etc.).

Instructor's policies on late assignments and/or makeup work

AI Tools Policy
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools, such as ChatGPT, BingAI, Claude, et al, may be used on homework assignments in this class, but with some caveats:
  • AI is not infallible.
  • AI is not allowed for extra credit assignments.
  • You will not be permitted to use AI in the Testing Center, where your weekly quizzes are given.
  • You will not be permitted to use AI during the final exam, which is proctored by the instructor.
  • This means that at most 1/3 of your grade can be assisted by AI, so if you use AI to do your homework, you are not learning statistics and will likely fail your quizzes, final, and hence the entire course.

Homework and Quizzes: Late and Make-up Policies
Homework will not be accepted late. No late or make-up quizzes will be given unless arrangements are made beforehand.
Students that are sick/quarantined or otherwise unable to attend the Testing Center may take a remote version of the quiz using Canvas while being proctored on Zoom by the instructor. Times will be determined as needed. Please notify the instructor in advance to schedule this option.

Lecture Recordings

Although this section does not feature a live Zoom option during class, previously recorded class lectures will be posted to the Media Gallery tab of the course  Canvas shell. Live Zoom sessions will be available for office hours (using my personal Zoom channel).

Course Outline

Daily lecture and homework schedule:
Homework for Monday--Friday lectures is usually due the following Monday at midnight. The cells colored in boldface cyan (below) indicate material not found in our textbook, but is supplemental (and required). Please note that weekly quizzes are on the Assignments tab of this Canvas course.
Date | Section | Comments
Aug 28 | Section 1.1 Overview, Section 1.2 Data Classification | Also introduction to spreadsheets
---- |  |
Sep 2 | Section 2.1 Freq Distributions/Histograms, Section 2.2 More Graphs |
Sep 3 | Quiz 1 (weekly quizzes are always in the Testing Center) | Last day to add w/o signature
Sep 4 | Section 2.3 Central Tendency, Section 2.4 Measures of Variation |
---- |  |
Sep 9 | Estimating mean and variance from grouped data, Section 2.5 Measures of Position |
Sep 10 | Quiz 2   (in the Testing Center, as usual) |
Sep 11 | Section 3.1 Basic Probability, Section 3.2 Conditional Probability |
---- |  |
Sep 16 | Section 3.2 Independent Events, Section 3.3 The Addition Rule |
Sep 17 | Quiz 3  (by now, you know where to take these: in the Testing Center) | Last day to change to audit or drop without "W" grade
Sep 18 | Section 3.4 Permutations, Combinations, Sampling with Replacement, Section 4.1 Probability Distributions |
---- |  |
Sep 23 | Section 4.2 Binomial Distribution, Section 4.3 More Distributions |
Sep 24 | Quiz 4 |
Sep 25 | Uniform and Hypergeometric Distributions, Section 5.1 Standard Normal Distribution |
---- |  |
Sep 30 | Section 5.2 Normal Distributions: Finding Probabilities, Section 5.3 Normal Distributions: Finding Values |
Oct 1 | Quiz 5 |
Oct 2 | Section 5.4 Central Limit Theorem, Section 5.5 Normal Approximation | These sections are "difficult", so don't miss class!
---- |  |
Oct 7 | Section 6.1 Confidence Intervals I, Section 6.2 Confidence Intervals II |
Oct 8 | Quiz 6 |
Oct 9 | Section 6.3 Confidence Intervals III, Section 6.4 Confidence Intervals IV |
---- |  |
Oct 14 | Fall Break, no class |
Oct 15 | Quiz 7 |
Oct 16 | Section 7.1 Intro to Hypothesis Tests, Section 7.2 Testing a Mean I |
---- |  |
Oct 21 | Section 7.3 Testing a Mean II, Section 7.4 Testing Proportions |
Oct 22 | Quiz 8 |
Oct 23 | Section 7.5 Testing a Variance , Section 8.1 Tests for Two Means I |
---- |  |
Oct 28 | Section 8.2 Tests for Two Means II, Section 8.3 Testing Paired Samples |
Oct 29 | Quiz 9 | Last day to withdraw (W grade)
Oct 30 | Section 8.4 Tests for Two Proportions, Section 9.1 Correlation |
|  |
Nov 4 | Section 9.2 Linear Regression, Section 9.4 Multiple Regression |
Nov 5 | Quiz 10 |
Nov 6 | Section 10.1 Chi-square Goodness of Fit Test, Chi-square Goodness-of-fit for Normal Distributions |
---- |  |
Nov 11 | Section 10.2 Chi-square Independence Test,Mini-project 1 | Mini projects are in-class only
Nov 12 | Quiz 11 |
Nov 13 | Section 10.3 Testing Two Variances, Section 10.4 ANOVA |
---- |  |
Nov 18 | Normal Probability Plots, Mini-project 2 | Mini projects are in-class only
Nov 19 | Quiz 12 |
Nov 20 | Section 11.1 Sign Test, Section 11.2 Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test |
---- |  | Nov 24-28 Thanksgiving Break
Dec 2 | Section 11.2 Mann-Whitney U Test, Section 11.3 Kruskal-Wallis Test |
Dec 3 | Quiz 13 |
Dec 4 | Section 11.4 Spearman Correlation Test, Semester Review |
---- |  |
Dec 11 | Final Exam from 3-4:50pm in our usual classroom| 

ADA Statement

Students with medical, psychological, learning, or other disabilities desiring academic adjustments, accommodations, or auxiliary aids will need to contact the Disability Resource Center, located in Room 206F of the Sharwan Smith Center or by phone at (435) 865-8042. The Disability Resource Center determines eligibility for and authorizes the provision of services.

If your instructor requires attendance, you may need to seek an ADA accommodation to request an exception to this attendance policy. Please contact the Disability Resource Center to determine what, if any, ADA accommodations are reasonable and appropriate.

Academic Credit

According to the federal definition of a Carnegie credit hour: A credit hour of work is the equivalent of approximately 60 minutes of class time or independent study work. A minimum of 45 hours of work by each student is required for each unit of credit. Credit is earned only when course requirements are met. One (1) credit hour is equivalent to 15 contact hours of lecture, discussion, testing, evaluation, or seminar, as well as 30 hours of student homework. An equivalent amount of work is expected for laboratory work, internships, practica, studio, and other academic work leading to the awarding of credit hours. Credit granted for individual courses, labs, or studio classes ranges from 0.5 to 15 credit hours per semester.

Academic Freedom

SUU is operated for the common good of the greater community it serves. The common good depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition. Academic Freedom is the right of faculty to study, discuss, investigate, teach, and publish. Academic Freedom is essential to these purposes and applies to both teaching and research.

Academic Freedom in the realm of teaching is fundamental for the protection of the rights of the faculty member and of you, the student, with respect to the free pursuit of learning and discovery. Faculty members possess the right to full freedom in the classroom in discussing their subjects. They may present any controversial material relevant to their courses and their intended learning outcomes, but they shall take care not to introduce into their teaching controversial materials which have no relation to the subject being taught or the intended learning outcomes for the course.

As such, students enrolled in any course at SUU may encounter topics, perspectives, and ideas that are unfamiliar or controversial, with the educational intent of providing a meaningful learning environment that fosters your growth and development. These parameters related to Academic Freedom are included in SUU Policy 6.6.

Academic Misconduct

Scholastic honesty is expected of all students. Dishonesty will not be tolerated and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent (see SUU Policy 6.33). You are expected to have read and understood the current SUU student conduct code (SUU Policy 11.2) regarding student responsibilities and rights, the intellectual property policy (SUU Policy 5.52), information about procedures, and what constitutes acceptable behavior.

Please Note: The use of websites or services that sell essays is a violation of these policies; likewise, the use of websites or services that provide answers to assignments, quizzes, or tests is also a violation of these policies. Regarding the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), you should check with your individual course instructor.

Emergency Management Statement

In case of an emergency, the University's Emergency Notification System (ENS) will be activated. Students are encouraged to maintain updated contact information using the link on the homepage of the mySUU portal. In addition, students are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the Emergency Response Protocols posted in each classroom. Detailed information about the University's emergency management plan can be found at https://www.suu.edu/emergency.

HEOA Compliance Statement

For a full set of Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) compliance statements, please visit https://www.suu.edu/heoa. The sharing of copyrighted material through peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing, except as provided under U.S. copyright law, is prohibited by law; additional information can be found at https://my.suu.edu/help/article/1096/heoa-compliance-plan.

You are also expected to comply with policies regarding intellectual property (SUU Policy 5.52) and copyright (SUU Policy 5.54).

Mandatory Reporting

University policy (SUU Policy 5.60) requires instructors to report disclosures received from students that indicate they have been subjected to sexual misconduct/harassment. The University defines sexual harassment consistent with Federal Regulations (34 C.F.R. Part 106, Subpart D) to include quid pro quo, hostile environment harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence, and stalking. When students communicate this information to an instructor in-person, by email, or within writing assignments, the instructor will report that to the Title IX Coordinator to ensure students receive support from the Title IX Office. A reporting form is available at https://cm.maxient.com/reportingform.php?SouthernUtahUniv

Non-Discrimination Statement

SUU is committed to fostering an inclusive community of lifelong learners and believes our university's encompassing of different views, beliefs, and identities makes us stronger, more innovative, and better prepared for the global society.

SUU does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, citizenship, sex (including sex discrimination and sexual harassment), sexual orientation, gender identity, age, ancestry, disability status, pregnancy, pregnancy-related conditions, genetic information, military status, veteran status, or other bases protected by applicable law in employment, treatment, admission, access to educational programs and activities, or other University benefits or services.

SUU strives to cultivate a campus environment that encourages freedom of expression from diverse viewpoints. We encourage all to dialogue within a spirit of respect, civility, and decency.

For additional information on non-discrimination, please see SUU Policy 5.27 and/or visit https://www.suu.edu/nondiscrimination.

Pregnancy

Students who are or become pregnant during this course may receive reasonable modifications to facilitate continued access and participation in the course. Pregnancy and related conditions are broadly defined to include pregnancy, childbirth, termination of pregnancy, lactation, related medical conditions, and recovery. To obtain reasonable modifications, please make a request to title9@suu.edu. To learn more visit: https://www.suu.edu/titleix/pregnancy.html.

Disclaimer Statement

Information contained in this syllabus, other than the grading, late assignments, makeup work, and attendance policies, may be subject to change with advance notice, as deemed appropriate by the instructor.