Numeracy (1 CU)
THE LEARNING OUTCOMES FOR ALL COURSES UNDER NUMERACY ARE:
DISCIPLINARY AND MULTIDISCIPLINARY KNOWLEDGE
- Students will be able to apply the principles and elements of calculus and statistics to data, and summarizing data sets into meaningful interpretations.
- Students will be able to execute suitable and appropriate quantitative procedures from a variety of angles like graphical, algebraic, statistical.
- Students will be able to write objective and logical interpretations of practical decision-making.
- Students will be able to apply conclusions extending across all domains: information systems, social sciences, accountancy, business in finance and operation optimization, economics, law, physics, etc.
INTELLECTUAL AND CREATIVE SKILLS
Students will be able to identify and solve general or specific problems from small scale to large, with quantitative functions, models, tests and calculations. Students will be able to connect the classroom to real-world issues, translate solutions into correct and relevant interpretations and recommend solutions.
INTERPERSONAL SKILLS
Students will be able to work collaboratively in student group projects which may carry significant weight, inside and/or outside class, and sometimes under strict time-limits, with presentations to internal and external stakeholders. Students will be able to:
- Write and interpret mathematical and/or statistical language into clear, coherent messages for general consumption.
- Logically organise symbols and numbers in tandem with words, for general consumption.
- Speak at an appropriate speed and articulate clearly.
- Hold self with poise and meaningful body language with the audience during presentations.
GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP
Students will be able to reflect on ethical issues related to numbers and uphold responsibility and integrity through seeking IRB approval for human-related subjects, PDPA adherence, data safe-guarding, correctness of analyses and ethical reporting of findings to all stakeholders, both internal and external.
PERSONAL MASTERY
Students will be able to demonstrate self-directedness learning, together with peer-to-peer learning for greater independence through learning via web tools (Echo, Webex, blended learning or flipped classroom).
COURSE OVERVIEW
Calculus introduces to students a set of elementary functions, their properties, various forms of analysis, and fundamental concepts in Calculus. Also introduced are the modeling methods in business and management by applying Calculus knowledge. The objective of the course is to develop the students’ understanding and skills in analyzing managerial problems, creating mathematical models, and using them to solve these problems. Although the module is essentially mathematical in nature, a rigid mathematical treatment is avoided and the necessary mathematical concepts are derived from examples rather than through proofs.
COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the course, students should be able to understand the following topics and apply these concepts to solve application problems:
- Basic symbol manipulation skills.
- Basic equation and inequality solving techniques.
- Basic graphing techniques.
- Techniques for differentiation.
- Techniques for integration.
COURSE OVERVIEW
In modern society, statistics is about almost everything from opinion polls to weather forecasting to the latest modeling of influenza H1N1 outbreaks. Indeed, it is now difficult to single out any discipline or field which is not directly or indirectly linked with statistics in one way or the other. Therefore, understanding the core ideas behind statistics becomes essential to any educated individual to function effectively and efficiently in everyday life.
This course aims at introducing students to the basic concepts of statistics and its applications. The uses of spreadsheet and statistical software are integrated into most topics of the course. Topics include descriptive statistics, basic concepts of probability, discrete and continuous probability distributions, sampling distributions, statistical estimation, hypothesis testing, linear regression etc.
COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the course, students should be able to:
- Appreciate statistical reasoning.
- Understand different ways of conducting a statistical study.
- Identify types of data.
- Deal with errors.
- Interpret and evaluate graphical presentations.
- Evaluate various measures of risk in daily life based on probability.
- Identify and interpret of correlation between two variables.
- Be aware that correlation does not necessarily imply causality.
- Formulate the null and alternative hypotheses.
- Understand the concept of statistical significance.
- Interpret the results of statistical estimation and hypothesis testing.
- Be familiar with add-in statistical program (PHStat) for Microsoft Excel to deal with statistical problems.
- Understand statistical modeling.
COURSE OVERVIEW
Statistics is the field of science concerned with ways of summarizing and analyzing data to obtain useful information. Statistics appears in many shapes and forms in our everyday life. It is often used to help individuals in problem solving and making decisions. This course gives an introduction to the basic theory of statistics and its applications. It provides a statistical foundation to students who are pursuing a quantitative major at SMU such as Economics, Finance, Applied Statistics, Actuarial Science, etc. Major topics include (i) Probability and Probability distributions, (ii) Univariate and Bivariate distributions, (iii) Point Estimation, (iv) Confidence Intervals, (v) Hypothesis Testing and (vi) Simple Linear Regression. Concepts will be discussed via examples and illustrations with datasets.
COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the course, students should be able to:
- Know the principles and elements of basic statistics.
- Understand the need for data collection and summarize data sets into meaningful information.
- Execute appropriate statistical procedures and write sound interpretations for use in practical decision-making.
* Not all courses are offered in every semester