STAD29

Statistics for the Life and Social Sciences

Ken Butler

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Welcome to the home page for STA 1007 / STAD29. This is the place to look for things course-related (notes, code, old exams etc., linked above) except for assignment hand-ins, marks, and ancient lecture videos, which is on Quercus.

News (newest first)

  • 2026-01-30 15:30: worksheet 4 solutions are up on the worksheets page. I am currently working on Worksheet 5 for next week.

  • 2026-01-28 12:10: I made a few edits to today’s lecture notes. Will try to mention the changes in class.

  • 2026-01-26 16:30: we have a midterm time. See the announcement on Quercus (I am not broadcasting it in public).

  • 2026-01-26 11:30: the actual Monday update:

  • 2026-01-26 10:15: campus is closed all day today, so office hours are cancelled. I will be keeping an eye on the Quercus discussions page in case there are any questions there.

  • 2026-01-25 22:00: you probably just got an alert that campus is closed until noon on Monday, to allow for clearance of the large amount of snow that fell today. This affects my office hours, which will change in time or possibly modality. Depending on travel conditions tomorrow, I plan to be on campus in the afternoon, but will revisit things in the morning. In any case, you and I can access the quercus discussion board whatever ends up happening.

  • 2026-01-23 15:30: my solutions to worksheet 3 are up on the worksheets page. Worksheet 4, which is also there, is for next week, so you don’t need to look at it yet.

  • 2026-01-22 15:45: progress report:

    • we are actually ahead of my plan for the course, so next week we are onto dates and times, and possibly also survival analysis, depending how much of the dates and times stuff I decide to talk about.
    • I was reading through the penguins question (on worksheet 3). This originally came from an assignment, and so the discussion had some stuff about “points” which makes no sense on a worksheet. I don’t think this affects any of the questions, but there is an updated version of the worksheet on the worksheets page anyway. Solutions to this worksheet go up tomorrow.
    • next week’s worksheet (#4) revisits one of the logistic regression problems, and has some stuff with dates and times (which gives you a hint about what to expect on assignment 3 when it comes).
    • reminder that Assignment 1 is due tomorrow night, and Assignment 2 opens tomorrow and will be due next week Friday.

  • 2026-01-21 16:05: it looks as if I did get all the way through the logistic regression stuff, so worksheet 3 (and assignment 2 to follow) are good to go.

  • 2026-01-21 10:30: it is snowing, but I am in the office and campus is open, so, unless something dramatic happens between now and then, class goes ahead.

  • 2026-01-20 22:00: as I write (Tuesday night), the weather forecast is not looking good for tomorrow: snow starting in the morning until the afternoon, and flurries after that. Keep an eye on the campus status page before you head to campus. As I write, it looks as if the campus will be open and thus you should expect our class to go ahead.

  • 2026-01-19 11:00: Monday update, updated 14:00:

    • I forgot to post my solutions to worksheet 2 (sorry), but they are on the on the worksheets page now.
    • this week’s lecture is the second half of logistic regression. I think we’ll be able to get the rest of the way through it, although this stuff sometimes takes more than two hours and I need to make sure I don’t go too fast.
    • there is a worksheet 3 on this stuff on the worksheets page. You can do “log odds and poisoning rats” now (it’s on the material at the tail end of the last lecture). How much sense Palmer Penguins and Choice-box make will depend on how far we get on Wednesday.
    • further practice is in PASIAS chapter 28 (ordinal) and chapter 29 (nominal).
    • Assignment 2 (no link yet) will be on the material in Worksheet 3. It opens on Jan 23 (Friday) and will be due on Jan 30.

  • 2026-01-12 12:15: Monday update:

    • this week’s lecture is on logistic regression. I am expecting to get to simple and multiple logistic regression and odds and log-odds, but intend to leave ordinal and multinomial logistic regression, where the ideas are more challenging, to next week.
    • a Worksheet 2 on this material is on the worksheets page.
    • further practice is in PASIAS chapter 27.
    • Assignment 1 will be on the material in Worksheets 1 and 2. It opens on Jan 16 (Friday) and will be due on Jan 23.

  • 2026-01-09 17:45: my solutions to worksheet 1 are now up on the worksheets page.

  • 2026-01-08 11:55: some notes to add to yesterday’s class:

    • the course outline properly formatted. The weights are 25% assignments, 30% midterm, 45% final.
    • Worksheet 1 is on the worksheets page, with solutions going up on Friday.
    • if you want extra examples/practice, the place to look is PASIAS. Chapter 26 covers this week’s material.
    • looking ahead, next week’s lecture is on logistic regression. There is a lot here; these slides usually take about two weeks to get through, so expect us to get about halfway next week. (added later) I updated the lecture notes, having made a few changes.
    • looking further ahead: there will be a worksheet 2 on this material. After that, meaning on Jan 16, the first assignment will open, which will be on the material from the first two weeks.

  • 2026-01-02 13:45: Week 1 is coming up:

    • Wednesday’s lecture:
      • a very brief overview of the course outline (since procedures are basically the same as in C32)
      • the regression revisited notes (probably highlights of this large number of slides). This is partly review, and partly some ideas on predictions and multicollinearity. Prediction ideas will crop up frequently in the first half of the course, so I want to introduce this in a familiar setting.
      • my usual procedure is to take a ten-minute break around the middle of the 2 hours, at what seems to be a good point to leave off. The IA building has a coffee place now.
      • expect me not to have much voice left by the end, but I should be able to deal with some quick questions after class.
    • There is a worksheet 1 on the worksheets page, which will make sense after class on Wednesday. Solutions to this will be posted on Friday.
    • There is no assignment in week 1; the material on worksheets 1 and 2 will be on assignment 1, which will open on Jan 16 and be due on Jan 23.
    • This course is more about the statistics and less about the coding than C32 was; I will assume that you have a good understanding of what we did in C32, so that I can use ideas from that course without having to review them.

  • 2025-12-29 16:40: doing some planning here. Here’s where I got to:

    • lectures on Wednesday, 2 hours, starting on Jan 5
    • no tutorial
    • worksheet on the lecture material opens on Wednesday, solutions posted on Friday
    • assignment opens on Friday, subject matter the same as the worksheet you just completed, due the Friday of the following week
    • first assignment opens in week 2, due in week 3
    • office hours on Monday, something like 11:30-12:30am. Purpose of office hours is to talk about the previous week’s lecture material and/or the previous week’s worksheet.
    • reading week is after week 6 of classes.
    • my planning google sheet. There will be a midterm at some point, and as usual I will not have an assignment due close to it. So expect some of the assignments to be moved later.

  • 2025-12-02 14:30: here is this year’s version of the site. Class meets once a week for two hours, starting on Wed January 7, 2026.