First-Year Courses in RC Interdivisional This page was created at 7:04 PM on Mon, Jan 21, 2002. Winter Academic Term, 2002 (January 7 - April 26) Open courses in RC Interdivisional (*Not real-time Information. Review the "Data current as of: " statement at the bottom of hyperlinked page) Wolverine Access Subject listing for RCIDIV Winter Academic Term '02 Time Schedule for RC Interdivisional. RCIDIV 222. Quantitatively Speaking. Section 001. Instructor(s): David T Burkam (dtburkam@umich.edu) Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Excl). (QR/1). Credits: (4). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. What is "quantitative reasoning" and how does such reasoning differ in form and content from other types of reasoning? This course is neither a traditional math course nor the usual statistics course, but deals with both areas. This course, intended for first- and second-year students, will include a rigorous and critical introduction to various modes of quantitative reasoning, all the while maintaining an accessibility for students in all fields. The majority of topics, however, will be drawn from the Social Sciences. There are no formal prerequisites for this course, but students should have completed at least three years of high school mathematics. We will begin with a discussion of what is typically meant by "quantitative reasoning," and then focus on how such reasoning is implemented (sometimes appropriately, sometimes not). One of the main goals of the course is to learn "basic survival skills" for today's number-intensive world: how to critique conclusions drawn from a survey, a graph, a table of numbers, etc., using Huff's How to Lie with Statistics. We will learn about the nature and meaning of opinion polls, and explore some of the vast literature on gender and ethnic differences. We will read Gould's The Mismeasure of Man, and Bowen & Bok's recently debated book on affirmative action, The Shape of the River. Requirements will include regular, extensive reading assignments from texts and course pack. In addition, students will be expected to: (1) Participate fully in class discussions; (2) Maintain an annotated journal of articles, graphs, etc., collected from newspapers, magazines, and other sources that present responsible and irresponsible uses of quantitative information; (3) Write occasional, brief papers; (4) Complete a midterm exam; and (5) Complete two research projects. As a class, we will conduct and analyze a brief survey. Each student will be required to produce a formal write-up of the entire procedure. For an individual project, students will select a topic of interest to them for further reading and discussion. Check Times, Location, and Availability Cost: No Data Given. Waitlist Code: No Data Given. This page was created at 7:04 PM on Mon, Jan 21, 2002. University of Michigan | College of LS&A | Student Academic Affairs | First-Year Handbook | First-Year Information | Parent Handbook | LS&A Bulletin This page maintained by LS&A Academic Information and Publications, 1228 Angell Hall Copyright © 2001 The Regents of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA +1 734 764-1817 Trademarks of the University of Michigan may not be electronically or otherwise altered or separated from this document or used for any non-University purpose.