Instructor: S. Sievers Mac 102 x3210 , 607/257-7641
sievers@wells.edu
I am on campus MWF, teach another course MWF at 9:30. Otherwise I am
usually around my office or the lab. If I am free, I'm yours. Make
an appointment to be sure.
Supplies: Required texts: Berk/Carey, Data Analysis with Microsoft
Excel, 1997 ed. (Green) (used before. If you don't have one,
contact Bookshop ASAP.)
Brian C. Cronk, How to use SPSS
One 3-1/2" disk or Zip disk, formatted for the IBM computers
First class: Bring Berk/Carey & disk.
Prerequisite: CS101. You need to know how to use Windows 95/98
enough to: find a file in a subfolder on the desktop; delete a file; copy
a file from one disk to another and make a copy on the same disk; do the
basic document jobs of open and save a file, print, etc. You need to know
how to read MS-DOS (Windows) filenames, including subdirectories.
(e.g. C:\Student\Class Materials\CS 103\ Myfile)
Scope of the course: We will be exploring some of the ways in which computational and graphical tools can convey information to us, as well as learning about the software packages Excel, a spreadsheet;and SPSS, a statistics package.
Computers: Our course will meet in Mac 101. Excel 7 is on all
the college's Windows 95/98 computers, but the add-ins used occasionally
will only be in Mac 101. Our license for SPSS covers a limited number of
computers. Besides all those in Mac 101, it is on one (?) computer in the
Social Sciences Lab (3rd floor north, Macmillan.)
If you have a computer with Excel 6 or 7, you can probably use it for
your Excel homework. See me if you need help installing the files on the
disk from the book. SPSS can be bought for your
own computer, not cheaply.
Student responsibility and grading:
This course, like the other CS10x courses, is designed to give you
the opportunity to develop skills in a hands-on laboratory setting. However,
unlike CS101 and 102, which are almost entirely about skill development,
CS103 is also substantially about content. You will need to interpret
the results that your new skills allow you to generate. Discussion in class
will help with this.
Although this course uses workbooks, they are not as "bulletproof" as the workbooks for 101. Ideas and tricks may need clarification or emphasis in class, and you will probably not be able to work as independently as you did in CS101. For the SPSS part there may sometimes be no written material for what we cover in class. Therefore it may be difficult or impossible to make up the work if you miss class. After each class, you will need to repeat or review the class work and extend it with homework to be prepared to extend your knowledge in the next class. For these reasons you are expected to attend all the classes and do the assigned homework on time.
Attendance : The official record of attendance will be the sign-in
sheet. It is your responsibility to sign it when you come in.
Not signed, not here.
Digest: You should keep notes or a digest of what you want to
remember from class, so that you will have something to refer to when you
do your homework and final projects, or come in to graph or analyze some
data or formulas next year. The format should be something fairly portable.
The course is 1.5 credits and is graded S/F.
TO RECEIVE A GRADE OF S YOU MUST SATISFY THE FOLLOWING:
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5+ | ||
| 0 | M | M | M | C | L | U | |
| 1 | M | M | M | C | L | U | |
| Late | 2 | M | M | C | C | L | U |
| Homeworks | 3 | C | C | C | C | L | U |
| 4 | L | L | L | L | L | U | |
| 5 | L | L | L | U | U | U | |
| 6+ | U | U | U | U | U | U |
Requirements for M, C, L will be made precise on the exam.
* If you have a disastrous illness or event during the term, get in touch with me right away!