GOVT 3990 - Puzzle Solving with Data

(SBA-AS)

Spring. 4 credits. Letter grades only.

This class is intended as a follow-up course to GOVT 3999 and while it is not a pre-requisite it is strongly recommended that you take GOVT 3999 before taking this class.

S. Garcia-Rios.

We introduce basic statistical reasoning with an emphasis on problems encountered in social science research. We explore the use of statistical tools to answer scientific research questions, and investigate the pitfalls associated with the misuse of statistics. By the end of the course students will be equipped to take more advanced statistics courses, and better prepared to evaluate quantitative claims made by social scientists and the media. Topics include: measurement and summary of data, exploratory data analysis, commonly-used probability distributions, statistical inference, basic linear regression and data visualization.