College of Natural Sciences
Please direct all questions about the flag proposal process to the Center for the Skills & Experience Flags.
SDS 332 Statistical Models for the Health and Behavioral Sciences
Department of Statistics and Data Science
Please give a brief description of the course. Include a description of the specific Quantitative Reasoning skills that students will learn and apply within this course.
This course introduces students to statistical models that are commonly used to analyze data collected in health care and behavioral research. The course covers the logic and mechanics of testing statistical hypotheses with these models, and the inferences that can be drawn from the results. One goal of this course is for students to develop a sufficient foundation from which they can begin to conduct their own data analyses and critically evaluate the statistical analyses of others. Another goal is for students to acquire experience using statistical analysis software to conduct data analyses.
Courses that carry the Quantitative Reasoning Flag must emphasize how QR skills can be applied in students’ everyday or professional lives. Please describe the kinds of applications the course uses to teach Quantitative Reasoning. Specific examples from assignments or exams are strongly encouraged.
Students conduct statistical analyses of realistic data sets from the health sciences area. Students are taught how to determine the appropriate statistical analysis to carry out, how to test whether the conditions of a particular analysis are satisfied and the types of inferences that can be made based on the results of the analysis. Students conduct their own data analyses using a widely used statistical software packages.
Courses that carry the Quantitative Reasoning Flag go beyond a superficial application of equations and strive for understanding of the underlying concepts. Please describe how you teach and assess conceptual understanding of Quantitative Reasoning. Specific examples from class, assignments, or exams are strongly encouraged.
The course emphasizes understanding the concepts underlying different statistical equations. Students are taught to differentiate between different types of variables and how the statistical analysis to apply is determined by the nature of the variables in the data set in conjunction with the researchers’ hypotheses and questions being tested.
To satisfy the Quantitative Reasoning Flag, at least half of the course grade must be based on the use of quantitative skills. Please describe the course grading scheme in such a way that clearly demonstrates at least half of the grade requires Quantitative Reasoning. Denote which components require Quantitative Reasoning and the total grade percentage these comprise.
Quizzes – 20% Assignments – 35% Exams – 45% quizzes – 20% of grade assignments – 32% of grade exams – 48% of grade All components involve quantitative skills. The quizzes and exams test students’ understanding of the statistical concepts covered in the class. The assignments involve using statistical software to carry out an analysis of a dataset and answering several analytic questions about the results that were obtained.