SOC 301 - Spring 2017

Week 14 - Tuesday

Tue, 02 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Slides available here

Covered Content

Go over PS13
Discuss similarities between confidence intervals and hypothesis testing
Talk about Quiz #5 on Tuesday, May 9 during class

To do for next time

A reminder that we will NOT meet on Thursday, May 4
Work on the [Practice Problems for Quiz #5]() [TO BE POSTED]
Work through the final from last semester
- Available via Slack

Week 13 - Thursday

Thu, 27 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Slides available here

Covered Content

Quiz #4 over Chapters 6 and 7 of ModernDive
Discuss 538 articles on p-hacking and p-values
Talk about bootstrapping and confidence intervals

To do for next time

Read all of Chapter 8 of ModernDive
- I will ask you at the beginning of class on Tuesday to provide the definition of confidence interval and standard error
Work on PS13

Week 13 - Tuesday

Tue, 25 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Slides available here

Covered Content

Converse about the 538 articles from PS10 and PS11 in groups and as a class
Go over laying out the “There is Only One Test” hypothesis testing framework for a Two Sample Independent Means problem
Briefly talk about traditional hypothesis testing and the assumptions required
Discuss ANOVA and its similarities to a Two-Sample Independent t-test
Discuss Chi-square and its similarities to a Two-Sample Proportions test

To do for next time

Work on completing the “There is Only One Test” diagram for all of the five problems we discussed in class on Thursday
Study for Quiz 4 on Thursday over Chapters 6-7 of ModernDive
- Work through the Practice Problems for Quiz 4. You can enter your answers here and you can check your answers as many times as you like.
- The quiz will be ten questions long and will be a subset of the questions in the Practice Problems for Quiz 4

Week 12 - Thursday

Thu, 20 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Slides available here

Covered Content

Go over examples of problem identification and Hypothesis Testing
Work on Problem Set 12

To do for next time

Work on completing the “There is Only One Test” diagram for all of the five problems we discussed in class today
Read this article about p-hacking from 538
- Summarize the main findings from the article and how it relates to the content in Chapter 7 of ModernDive in 3-5 paragraphs
Create AT LEAST five multiple choice questions covering Chapters 6 and 7 of ModernDive.
- Create a Google Doc with your questions and share with isma5720@pacificu.edu
- Please follow the layout I have provided in the Sample Question Layout document here. Copy over the content of this document into a new Google Doc and then enter your questions.
- Each question should have four possible answers.
- Don’t mark what you choose to be the correct answer on what you turn in, but make note of your choice elsewhere to facilitate your learning.
- Please use Courier New font for all pieces of R code.

Week 12 - Tuesday

Tue, 18 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Slides available here

Covered Content

Discuss Problem Set 10 in pairs
Go over example of Hypothesis Testing
Work on Problem Set 11

To do for next time

Read all of Chapter 7 of ModernDive
Finish Problem Set 11
Come prepared to discuss the articles and the examples in Section 7.6 and Section 7.7
Note that Section 7.8 shows how to use the ideas from Chapter 7 to more “traditional” hypothesis testing procedures
- There are complete worked out examples using randomization and traditional methods in ModernDive Appendix B

Week 11 - Thursday

Thu, 13 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Slides available here

Covered Content

Reviewed Midterm Exam
Discussed functions in the mosaic package
Talked about the Lady Tasting Tea example to motivate simulation
Worked on and turned in Problem Set 10

To do for next time

Read Sections 7.1 - 7.5 of ModernDive
Work through LC7.1-LC7.5

Week 11 - Tuesday

Tue, 11 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Covered Content

Midterm Exam

To do for next time

Read over all of Chapter 6 of ModernDive
Work through LC6.1-LC6.17 in RStudio as needed
- I’ll choose some subset of these questions to make up a Problem Set
- I’m hoping you have time in class on Thursday to talk about your responses to these Learning Checks with partners after I lecture on the content covered in the remainder of Chapter 6. Lecture will go much more smoothly if you have done the reading BEFORE class though.

Midterm Review

Thu, 06 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Tips

Be sure to review and constantly check for understanding of
- problem set discussions
- DataCamp Assignments, in particular
- slides from class
- ModernDive
Write some sample problems yourself and try to solve them. You can easily do this by modifying the DataCamp assignments and the learning checks as needed. There is a strong positive correlation between students that show me the quizzing they did and good grades on exams.
Work through the exams from last semester
- Exam 1
- Exam 2
- The solutions to both are in the #general channel in Slack. You should check your work there AFTER you have tried the problems yourself.
If you perform poorly on the exam and we meet to talk about it, I will ask you to show me exactly how you studied for the exam. If you tell me, “I read over the notes many times.” I’m going to tell you that I told you that wasn’t an effective strategy. I want you all to succeed and get better and the best way to do that is for you to take ownership on what you know and to quiz yourselves often.
Remember that you shouldn’t just be reading over the answers and the book over and over again. Once is fine, but after that you should be quizzing yourself for understanding. If you don’t know what you know when you are studying, you will be surprised when you take the exam. Don’t do that!

To perform well on the Midterm Exam, you should be fluent in the following tasks:

Chapter 3 (Tidy Data)

Give the definition of tidy data
Identify whether a data set follows the tidy guidelines and explain why or why not using the definition.
Identify the observation unit, variables, and variable types (numerical/categorical) from a problem statement / data set
Explain how normal forms of data can be used to assist with data analysis

Chapter 4 (Data Visualization via ggplot2)

Clarify what makes up a statistical graphic
Describe what aes, geom_, facet, and position correspond to in a ggplot function call
Be able to identify which plot(s) are most appropriate from a problem statement / variable types in a data set.
Explain the differences between the Five Named Graphs
Explain how jitter and/or alpha can be applied to a plot to help the reader understand the relationship between two variables
Create the following in R using ggplot2 from appropriate variable(s) in a data set
- Scatter-plot
- Line-graph
Give a scenario where a line-graph is more appropriate than a scatter-plot
Explain the components of a histogram
- What makes up the vertical axis?
- What makes up the horizontal axis?
- Do the bars touch?
- How does changing the binwidth / number of bins change a histogram?
Create a histogram in R using ggplot2 from an appropriate variable in a data set
Interpret what the histogram tells you about the distribution of the variable
- Is it symmetric or skewed?
- Where do most values fall?
Explain why a faceted histogram is useful in comparing the distribution of a numeric variable across the groups of a categorical variable.
Create a faceted histogram in R using ggplot2 from appropriate variables in a data set
Compare and contrast the usefulness and differences between faceted histograms and boxplots.
Describe the components of a boxplot
Use a boxplot to compare two distributions
Explain the components of a boxplot
- What makes up the vertical axis?
- What makes up the horizontal axis?
Explain the components of a barplot
- What makes up the vertical axis?
- What makes up the horizontal axis?
Describe why pie charts should be replaced with barplots from a visual perception perspective
Explain the differences between stacked, side-by-side, and faceted barplots
Create the following in R using ggplot2 from appropriate variable(s) in a data set
- Barplot
- Stacked barplot
- Side-by-side barplot
- Faceted barplot

Chapter 5 (Data Manipulation via dplyr)

Discuss how the pipe %>% is used in data wrangling analyses
Give a brief statement as to what each of the Five Main Verbs does
Explain why the filter function (if needed) must be used before doing any of the other Main Verbs
Write R code using filter function to choose specific rows from a data frame that match certain criterion
- Understand when you should use |, &/,, <, <=, ==, !=, >, >=, and %in%
Discuss how to use the summarize function to calculate a numerical summary of a column. You should know the code to produce
- Minimum
- Maximum
- Mean
- Median
- Proportion matching using mean( == )
Explain how group_by can be used in combination with summarize to get aggregated data across the levels of one or more categorical variables
Discuss what standard deviation gives you for a variable
- You may want to review Appendix A of ModernDive
Write R code to sort data in both ascending and descending order based on a variable
Write R code to create a new variable based on the values of one or more variables in a data frame
Reverse engineer by providing the R code to produce an aggregated table
- The warmups from the slides and DataCamp provide examples of doing this.

Section 6.1 (Random Sampling)

Match each of the “Common terms” given in Subsection 6.1.2 with their correct definition
Identify what each of the “Common terms” would represent for a given scenario
Discuss why representative sampling is necessary

Extensions

Explain how you could make a messy data set into a tidy data set by hand.
- What would the variables be and what would a couple of rows in the new tidy data set look like?
Clarify why R code produces an error and fix the code to produce the correct result.
Describe how you could use color to look at the relationship between three continuous variables.
Describe how one can use color, fill, size, and/or shape to show other multivariate (more than two variables) relationships

Week 10 - Tuesday

Tue, 04 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Slides available here

Covered Content

Reviewed terminology from Chapter 6 on sampling from ModernDive

To do for next time

Problem Set 9
Work through Exam 1 and Exam 2 from last semester for practice
- You should skip Problem 4 on Exam 2 as we will be covering that content later in our course.
- Note that Exam 1 last semester was a Take Home Exam so the questions are a little more challenging at times than what I would ask you for an in-class exam.
Continue studying for the Midterm Exam, which will occur during class on Tuesday, April 11
- The exam will cover Chapters 3, 4, and 5 and Section 6.1 of ModernDive and the content covered on the slides from here on
For Practice on understanding of Chapter 6 material: LC6.1-LC6.17 from ModernDive
- In particular, focus on LC6.1-LC6.7 for the exam

Final Group Projects

Mon, 03 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This page provides the final revised fivethirtyeight R package vignettes created as a Group Project by Chester Ismay’s Spring 2017 Social Statistics Course at Pacific University. In the spirit of reproducible research, here is a link to all source code/data for these projects.

Police Killings in Western U.S. During 2015 - By Kelsey Graczyk, Cydni Mullikin, and Tia Kinilau
What Contributes to Bad Driving? - By Lina Kleinschmidt, Emily McLain, and Taylor Yoshiura
- Additional CSV file included in analysis to create larger groupings of division and region for each state
- Another CSV file providing the precipitation for each state
The Demographics of 2015 Police Killing Victims - By Alicia Fox, Bree Malloy, and Jalaena DiPasquale
How Many Fucks Does Tarantino Give? - By Olivia Barrows, Jojo Miller, and Jayla Nakayama
Comparison of Quentin Tarantino Movies by Box Office and the Bechdel Test - By Garrett Wedge, Natasha Halstvedt, and Micah Nakamoto
Drug of Choice Among Teens and Beer & Wine Comparison among Canada, Mexico, and USA - By Jeremy Kaufman, Alicia Ortigoza, Alexandra Reyes, and Daisy Rizo
College Majors, Employment Rates, and Unemployment Rates - By Fernando Careaga and Hannah Kantor-O’Neil
- Additional CSV file included in analysis to create larger grouping of division
The Effects of Population on Murders in Big Cities - By Sarah Alanis, Rachel Carlson, and Ariel Rigwood
How Do Household Income and Race Contribute to the Number of Killings by Police? - By Karla Maldonado, Brady O’Keefe, and Jeriko Santos

Week 08 - Tuesday

Tue, 21 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Covered Content

Quiz #3 individually and in groups
Peer review another group’s Group Project Draft
Finish Revised Group Project
- Final revisions to your Group Project are due by 10 AM in your Google Drive folder on Thursday, March 23
- Make sure that you have a knitted HTML document (group_project_final.html) and the corresponding group_project_final.Rmd in your group Google Drive folder

To do for next time

Problem Set 8 includes you filling out a midterm course evaluation, a peer review, and an individual review of your group project.
- You will need to fill out the form by 4:20 PM on Thursday, March 23 to receive credit.
- Please be candid and up-front about ways I can improve the course after spring break. Remember that this course will challenge you and that won’t be changing after break, but if I can fix the timing or the way content is covered it is much better that I hear about that NOW and not when the class is over.

Week 07 - Thursday

Thu, 16 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Covered Content

Answer questions about PS6 Learning Checks
Peer review another group’s Group Project Draft
Work through Quiz #3 from last semester
Finish Group Project Draft

To do for next time

Complete dplyr Review DataCamp chapter (Due on March 21 at 11:59 PM)
Study for Quiz #3 that will occur at the beginning of class on Tuesday, March 21
- Potential questions for Quiz #3
- You can check to see if your answers are correct on this Google Form
- The quiz will cover chapters 3, 4, and 5 of ModernDive, the corresponding DataCamp assignments, and material we have covered in class.
I will send you a message on Slack to your group when I have provided my comments on your Group Project Draft.
- Final revisions to your Group Project are due by 10 AM in your Google Drive folder on Thursday, March 23
Problem Set 8 includes you filling out a midterm course evaluation, a peer review, and an individual review of your group project.
- You will need to fill out the form by 4:20 PM on Thursday, March 23 to receive credit.
- Please be candid and up-front about ways I can improve the course after spring break. Remember that this course will challenge you and that won’t be changing after break, but if I can fix the timing or the way content is covered it is much better that I hear about that NOW and not when the class is over.

Week 07 - Tuesday

Tue, 14 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Slides available here

Covered Content

Review the Five Main Verbs of Data Wrangling
Work on Group Project

To do for next time

Review the Problem Set 6 Discussion and identify at least one question you have about what I have written compared to what you wrote as a response.
Finish your Group Project by writing your final analysis ALL inside the group_project.Rmd file
- I recommend that you do this on only one machine so that you don’t overwrite someone else’s work using Google Drive. Google Drive is great for backing things up but not for everyone working on the same file at the same time.
- Ensure that the Rmd file produces an HTML file when you press the Knit button in RStudio
- The Group Project will be due at the beginning of class on Thursday, March 16
Complete PS7 by 1 PM on Thursday, March 16
- Carefully follow the instructions on the PS7 assignment
- Share the five multiple choice questions based ONLY on Chapter 5 with isma5720@pacificu.edu
- Quiz #3 on Tuesday, March 21 will cover Chapters 3-5 of ModernDive

Week 06 - Thursday

Thu, 09 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Slides available here

Covered Content

Review the Five Main Verbs of Data Wrangling
- filter()
- summarize
- group_by() with summarize()
Talked about always needing to do filter() BEFORE you do group_by() with summarize() (It won’t work if you do it in a different order!)
Discuss the last two of the FMV
- mutate()
- arrange()
Work on Group Project, Problem Set 6, and DataCamp assignment DC9

To do for next time

Meet with your group to work on Group Project
Make sure to enter your R code in your own scratch_<name>.R files in the Google Drive folder
Complete Problem Set 6
Complete Filtering, Grouping, & Summarizing DataCamp chapter (Due on March 14 at 1 PM)

Week 06 - Tuesday

Tue, 07 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Slides available here

Covered Content

Work on getting Group Project files set up in RStudio
Discuss some of the Five Main Verbs of Data Wrangling
- filter()
- summarize
- group_by with summarize
Work on Group Project, Problem Set 6, and DataCamp assignments DC8 and DC9 below

To do for next time

Meet with your group to work on Group Project
- Ensure everyone in your group has the Google Drive folder downloaded to their computer and is able to work with it inside RStudio
- I’ll check this at the beginning of class and you’ll lose points as a group for your project if you don’t have this working for all members of your group
Complete Reporting with R Markdown DataCamp course (Due on March 9 at 1 PM)
Begin Filtering, Grouping, & Summarizing DataCamp chapter (Due on March 14 at 1 PM)