Kevin A. Rader
STAT 104 | Fall 2025 | Course Listing | Canvas Site
Monday & Wednesday, 1:30 PM – 2:45 PM
In a world where data is growing larger and more complex, it can be a challenge to turn an abundance of information into the knowledge from which sound decisions can be made. As a discipline, statistics aims to bridge the gap between knowledge and information. This course will motivate statistical methods through data analysis and visualization, in addition to discussing the underlying theory. We will discuss topics such as study design, descriptive statistics, probability, sampling distributions, hypothesis testing, linear regression, and Bayesian inference. A wide variety of applications from the economic and social sciences will be highlighted along with examples from biology, sports, politics, and more. Students with prior exposure to introductory statistics will find some overlap of material but be exposed to new applications and learn more advanced modeling techniques. This course makes use of the statistical programming language R, but no prior knowledge of computer science is required.
Course Requirements: Anti-Req: may not be taken for credit if STAT 139 or STAT 149 or 244 already complete.