Assignments
ID1 (9 out of 10 Seniors Recommend this Freshman Seminar: Statistics in the Real World)
TuTh 11-12:15, Millikan 211
email: jo.hardin@pomona.edu
Office Hours: Mon 1:30-3pm, Wed 2-3:30pm
ID1 Intern: Erik Lykken
email: erik.lykken@pomona.edu
Office Hours:
Sun 2-3:30pm (SGM Science Library, 2nd floor)
Thurs 3:30-5pm (Writing Center, SCC, 2nd floor)
Informal Papers
1. Find a numeric or quantitative statement from the book, “The Weather Makers.” Give some examples of additional information that would clarify the statement. Explain how the additional information might actually lead the reader to the opposite conclusion of Tim Flannery. (Due Tuesday 9/11/07)
2. Find an example from the readings of a type of chance occurrence or situation that has a randomness component. Explain why (inherently) it is counterintuitive. Then explain why it is actually correct. (Due Tuesday 9/18/07)
3. Using one of the fiction stories, reflect on how one character is developed through the chance/random occurrences happening in the story. (Due Tuesday 9/25/07)
4. Find a poll (from a national newspaper, a college
newspaper, a website you frequent…) and try to get as much information as you
can about the poll (Who they asked, What they asked, Who funded it,…)
Then ask as many questions as you can about the poll (How do they know that?
How were the people selected? Who did they miss?...) I simply want the
poll, information about the poll, and the questions you have about it.
This does not need to be written up in a “paper” type manner. Just
lists/bullet points are fine. If you are having trouble finding a poll,
check out
5.
Library Assignment: Find two articles about a particular treatment for a given disease or medical
condition. One of the articles must be from a peer-reviewed journal (for
example, The Journal of the American Medical Association or The New
make your life easier in about a month.)
Your assignment is to simply give me a copy of the articles and summarize the treatment given for the disease or medical condition. Also, you must give the complete citation (note: good idea to look up how to cite in your Hacker guide) for each of the articles. (due Tuesday 10/30/07)
6. Repairing Plagiarism: From the attached passages, re-paraphrase the original on random digit dialing. (Send via email by midnight Wednesday 11/14/2007)
Moderately formal Papers (These papers should be written using formal paper guidelines: argue a succinct idea, no contractions, etc., but they are short and should be a fun way for you to express what you think about the situation at hand.)
1. Assume you are on the jury in the movie 12 Angry Men . At what point are you convinced that there is reasonable doubt? (~2 pages, due Friday 12/7/07, 5pm)
2. Assume you are on the jury for people vs. Simpson . At what point are you convinced that there is reasonable doubt? (~2 pages, due Wednesday 12/12/07, 5pm)
* In “The Babylon Lottery” Borges suggests ways of
decision making in every day life. How do his suggestions change as the
lottery becomes more extreme and integrated into our/their lives? As the
story progresses, does rational decision making become possible or impossible?
* To Dostoevsky, what is “fate,” and how does it
differ from “chance?” How do fate and
chance affect characters’ decisions throughout the novel?
* Compare two different gamblers from The Gambler.
In what ways are they similar or different with respect to their motivation
and/or destinies? You may want to consider characteristics such as
gender, nationality, age,…
* A topic of your choice dealing with the fiction
stories we have read in class. If you choose this option, you must meet
with me at least one day before the abstract is due so that I can approve your
topic.
Dates are:
Abstract (due Friday 9/28/06)
Comments on at least 3 other abstracts (due Monday 10/01/06)
First complete version (due Friday 10/05/06)
Comments back Tuesday 10/9 (thoughts on paper #1)
Revised paper (due Tuesday 10/16/06)
2.
Paper assignment (4-5 pages). You should write on one of the following
prompts. Note, again your arguments should be based on the
readings. It’s okay to bring in outside sources, but they must be referenced,
and the majority of your arguments should be based on readings from class.
*
In the movie Magic Town, Rip Smith
polls the citizens of
*
On Nov 3, 1948 the Chicago Tribune
printed a front page headline, “Dewey Beats Truman.” Describe what happened to make the Tribune print such a mistake (use
credible sources for your background material, and be sure to cite them). If you could change only one thing prior to the election (in the hopes of getting the
results right), what would it be? Use
the readings from class and/or outside readings to base your argument.
* Have modern advances made polling more or less accurate? Why? Be sure to explain what you mean by “modern.”
*
A topic of your choice dealing with the readings from this section. If
you choose this option, you must meet with me at least one day before the
abstract is due so that I can approve your topic.
Dates are:
Abstract (due Friday 10/26/07)
Comments on at least 3 other abstracts (due Monday 10/29/07)
First complete version (due Friday 11/2/07)
Comments back Tuesday 11/6
In class peer editing 11/8
Revised paper (due Tuesday 11/13/07)
3. Research Paper assignment (7-10 pages). Your paper will be on a particular treatment (or treatments) of a disease or condition that you choose.
Prompt: Your roommate (or anyone else) has disease / condition X and is considering treatment Y. Advise.
Subprompts:
*
You choose X (the disease or condition) and Y (the treatment)
*
You should give some background into the problem. Not a complete history
of the disease, but rather why people started treating disease X with treatment
Y. Maybe a little background into what other treatments have been used
before treatment Y came about.
*
You should have a start to your research (given your newspaper article and the
medical article.) You might use the Web of Science to find out what has
happened since your article was published. One way to do this is to find
articles that have cited your original article.
*
You will still have a thesis statement that you are arguing. However, for
this paper, the thesis statement is the easy part. Your thesis may state,
for example, “Treatment Y is a significant advance in medicine, and I would
advise its use.” Or “Treatment Y has some promising results, but the
research to this point is inconclusive in terms of broad medical use.”
*
The argument / evidence for this paper will be the hard part. You will be
using multiple articles/studies to argue your point.
*
You must use at least 5 references. 2 of them must be from peer reviewed
medical or biological journals.
* Your topic should be your thesis statement and a few other pertinent pieces of information (whatever you think you need to say to convey what topic you’ll be discussing.)
*
If you want to use a web source, you must email me with a reason why the
information on the website can’t be found elsewhere. If you have a good reason (and the website is
legitimate), I will probably approve the use of the website as a source.
* Your bibliography should be annotated. That means, for each reference, you need to write 1-4 sentences describing the article.
Dates are:
Topic & Annotated Bibliography (due Wednesday 11/21/07)
First complete version (due Friday 11/30/07)
Revised paper (due Friday 12/14/07, noon)