PSTAT 5LS Syllabus

Fall 2025

Note: All times are listed in local Sanata Barabara time (PDT).
Contact Info Class Meetings Office Hours
Brian Wainwright M/W Tue - 10:00 - 11:30 AM SH 2421
wainwright@[Link] 12:30 PM-1:45 PM MUSICLLCH
SH 2431 - E Thu - By Appt In-person / Zoom

COURSE WEBSITE: [Link]

It is the student’s responsibility to keep current with updates to the course website and check on
a weekly basis that the posted grades are correct.

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

PSTAT 5LS is a 5-credit hour introduction to statistics for students interested in the quantitative
analysis of problems in the life sciences. This course introduces students to the investigative process
of statistics so they may become critical consumers of statistics. Students will learn to summa-
rize data both graphically and numerically and to use their understanding of variability to make
inference from a sample to the population. Topics include graphical and numerical summaries of
data, data collection, correlation and regression, sampling distributions, confidence intervals, and
hypothesis testing.

INSTRUCTIONAL TEAM:
Instructor
• Brian Wainwright
• Email: wainwright@[Link]
• Office: 2431-E

Teaching Assistants
• Head TA: Cyrus Tabatabai-Yazdi - helps with administration of the course and keeps sections
running smoothly.

• Section TAs: Bingjian Xia, Siyu Chen, Clair Gan, Joshua Lee, Xiaoke Li, Cai Wu, Taran Kota.

Undergraduate Learning Assistants

• ULAs: TBD

How do I contact members of the instructional team? The best way to contact members
of the instructional team is through Canvas or via email. In terms of email, you will primarily be
emailing your TA, but we have more guidelines here.

When can I get help from instructional team members? We have an array of office hours
during which you can meet with anyone from the instructional team, whether that is with me, your
TA, another TA, or our ULAs (presuming we get some for our class). We have office hours blocked
off on our schedules so that we can help you learn, understand, and work with the concepts you will
learn this quarter. Please visit us during office hours! Days/times/locations of office hours are posted
here in Canvas. Make sure to check for any weekly changes to regularly scheduled office hours.
MATERIALS:

• Lecture Slides: Slides will be posted on Canvas as they are available. You will want to have
these available for lectures.

• Access to R via RStudio: We will use the R language in the integrated development environ-
ment RStudio for our data analysis. You will access R via RStudio on JupyterHub within your
browser. You can access JupyterHub from a link on the home page in Canvas or by visiting
[Link]

• This link will pull in any labs or homework currently being worked on. It will also overwrite
files with the existing name, so you will need to save your work in another folder or rename
the files. (More on this in section)
• To open an instance of RStudio without pulling any files into your session, use this link
here: [Link] Note, this link will only open an instance of
RStudio on JupyterHub.

• Gradescope: You will use Gradescope to view and submit homework assignments and lab
reports and to view your graded exams. You can access Gradescope from the left-hand navigation
menu in Canvas. If this does not work for you, contact me in office hours. It is possible to use
a course code to connect your existing Gradescope account to our class. If you have multiple
Gradescope accounts, please visit here to learn how to merge your accounts.

• Calculator You will need a scientific calculator for lecture, section meetings, home- work, and
exams. Texas Instruments offers several inexpensive calculators (e.g., the TI-30XIIS is a nice
little calculator). It is also fine for you to use a graphing calcula- tor (e.g., TI-83, TI-84, TI-
Nspire) if you already have one. The library loans out calculators—visit here for details.

ASSESSMENT:
Section Participation 10%
Homework 25%
Exam 1 20%
Exam 2 20%
Final Exam 25%

• Curve or No Curve? There will not be a curve. Below is the breakdown of the cutoffs between
letter grades, which is based on the percentage of the total weighted points accumulated in the
class. Remember, these percentages are based on the weighted point totals.

Percentage Range Letter Grade

[98, 100] A+
[90% − 98%) A
[87% − 90%) B+
[80% − 87%) B
[77% − 80%) C+
[70% − 77%) C
[67% − 70%) D+
[60% − 67%) D
Below 60% F
 • Final course percentages will be calculated to three decimal places. Course percentages are not
rounded to integers. The cut points above are used for all students (i.e., there will not be a curve
in the course). For example, a final percentage of 86.999% will result in a final course grade of
B (i.e., a final percentage of 86.999 is not rounded up to 87 for a B+).
Note*: If you registered P/NP for PSTAT 5LS, grades of C or higher will be changed to Pass
and grades of D+ or lower will be changed to No Pass.
Note**:As the instructor I reserve the right to adjust the cutoff points, under a no-harm structure,
if necessary.

• What happens if you need to miss a midterm exam or if you don’t perform as well as you would
have liked? If your Final Exam percentage is higher than the lowest percentage on your other
assessments (Exam 1, Exam 2), your Final Exam will count in place of that lowest assessment
(examples below). If you find that you are under the weather or overwhelmed (or anything else),
this policy may help you. You can try your best on the exam without worrying that you’re not
going to perform as well as you might have had life not gotten in the way.

– Example 1: Exam 1 75%; Exam 2 85%; Final Exam 80% → The 75% from Exam 1 becomes
80% on Exam 1
– Example 2: Exam 1 80%; Exam 2 70%; Final Exam 85% → The 70% from Exam 2 becomes
85% on Exam 2
– Example 3: Exam 1 90%; Exam 2 85%; Final Exam 80% → No change to exam percentages
Notes: • Neither Exam 1 nor Exam 2 can be used to replace the Final Exam • This policy
for exams will not apply to any student found in violation of the academic integrity policy
on an exam

Sections Sections allow you to interact with the material and analyze the data in a smaller setting
than the lecture. In section, your TA will answer questions and review concepts, and you will be able
to work on exercises and applications. It’s important that you keep up with the material from lecture
so that you can get the most out of your section meetings. (Your TA will assume that you have been
keeping up with the lecture material.)
Some logistics:

• Your section meets twice a week (either MW or TR).

• All sections meet in person, unless otherwise directed by the University.

• Our sections are held in a number of rooms on campus. Please check your course schedule to
determine the days, times, and location of the section you are registered for.

• Attendance and participation are necessary to earn points for the Section Attendance portion
of your grade.

• We understand that there might be occasions when you need to miss a section meeting. So, to
alleviate the need to adjudicate who will be excused and unexcused, we will automatically drop
your three lowest section participation scores (including 0s for non-attendance).

HOMEWORK:

• Weekly homework assignments will be assigned and turned in through Gradescope.

 • When a homework assignment is released, be sure to look through the questions so that you can
get a sense of what that week’s homework is asking.

• Homework assignments are opportunities for you to practice with the concepts and methods in
the class so that you can increase your understanding. To get the most out of these learning
opportunities, I recommend that you start your homework assignments as early in the week as
you can. This will give you time to think about the questions and to get the most out of learning
from homework instead of just having homework as a thing you need to complete for the course.
Additionally, starting early will give you time to ask us questions in office hours.

• As with all assessments in the course, homework assignments must reflect your own work. We
encourage you to talk with each other (especially about the concepts), but all calculations, final
answers, and explanations must be your own.

• Homework solutions will be available as soon as the assignment closes on Gradescope.

• Since the homework solutions are posted at the deadline, we cannot accept late home- work
assignments, regardless of the reason (including tech issues, personal issues). However, we will
automatically drop your one lowest homework assignment (including a 0 for non-
submission). Please do not email members of the instructional team to ask for an exception.

EXAMS:

Note: Exams are in-person, synchronous events. The in-quarter exams will be administered
during lecture. The final exam date has been set by the Registrar. As each exam date approaches,
we will post more details about the exams on Canvas. Make sure to mark your calendar.
Tentative Exam Schedule These dates are tentative, and based on course progression, slight
changes to the exam schedule may be necessary.

• The first exam will take place on Wednesday, October 29th

• The second exam will occur on Wednesday, November 19th

• The final exam will take place on Tuesday, December 9th, 12-3PM

Schedule changes
The Instructor reserves the right to make policy and course changes to the syllabus at any time
with advance notice to students.
The schedule is subject to change depending on the progress of the course.

Exam Makeup Policy. Any foreseeable reason for missing an exam must be reported to the in-
structor as soon as possible. In the case that you must miss an exam for a (documented) University
protected reason, the instructor must be notified at least a week in advance.

Academic Dishonesty This will be dealt with severely. Among the prohibited activities are:

• Collaborating or cheating on exams. (obviously)

• Attempting to misuse any course-related computer system or tampering with another student’s
coursework.

• Fabricating an excuse for absence. (my favorite)

Academic Integrity. Cheating, plagiarism, and collusion in dishonest activities will not be tolerated.
All work you submit to fulfill course requirements must represent your own efforts. Labs are individual
assignments. It is your responsibility to know the campus rules about academic misconduct. Please
be familiar with Academic Integrity at UCSB.

Plagiarism: Plagiarism is the act of presenting someone else’s work as one’s own. Examples include:
Copying and pasting text from websites and presenting it as your own original work. Copying and
pasting text from printed sources (including books, encyclopedias or newspapers) and presenting it
as your own original work. Using another student’s work and claiming it as your own original work.
Cheating: Cheating is the act of pretending (or helping others to pretend) to have mastered course
material through misrepresentation. Examples include: Copying in whole or in part from another
student’s test or paper. Allowing another student to copy from your test or assignment. Stealing,
buying or otherwise obtaining all or part of a test before it is administered. Selling or giving away all
or part of a test before it is administered.

Intellectual Property – Course Materials All course materials (class lectures and discussions,
handouts, examinations, web materials) and the intellectual content of the course itself are pro-
tected by United States Federal Copyright Law and the California Civil Code. UC Policy 102.23
expressly prohibits students (and all other persons) from recording lectures or discussions and from
distributing or selling course materials without the prior written permission of the instructor. (See
[Link] Students are permitted to make notes solely for
their own private educational use. Exceptions to accommodate students with disabilities may be
granted with appropriate documentation.

Accommodation for Students with Learning & Physical Differences

I am dedicated to facilitating students with learning and physical differences. Please see me for
support for this and other classes. Providing academic accommodations to students with disabilities
is a shared responsibility of the campus. Students with disabilities are responsible for ensuring that
the Disabled Students Program (DSP) ([Link] ) is aware of their disabilities and for
providing DSP with appropriate documentation. DSP is located at 2120 Student Resource Building
and serves as the campus liaison regarding issues and regulations related to students with disabilities.
The DSP staff works in an advisory capacity with a variety of campus departments to ensure that
equal access is provided to all disabled students.

General Academic Support. Campus Learning Assistance Services (CLAS) offers instructional
groups, drop-in tutoring, writing and ESL services, skills workshops and one-on-one consultations.
CLAS is located on the third floor of the Student Resource Building (although they will be offering
hybrid tutoring during the Winter 2022 quarter, and you will probably need to access this service
online for at least the first two weeks of the quarter).

LGBTQ Syllabus Statement

Gender and Sex Discrimination Policy and Student Support: Under Title IX, university students
are protected from harassment and discrimination based on gender and sex. If a student feels uncom-
fortable or in need of support at any time related to their gender, sex, and/or sexual orientation, please
contact your TA and/or course instructor immediately. If a student would like to disclose information
related to pronouns, name changes, or identities, we encourage you to do so. UCSB’s Resource Center
for Sexual and Gender Diversity on the 3rd floor of the Student Resource Building is also available to
advocate and be of and support to students.

Non-discrimination Policy
 All students have the right to learn and participate in a classroom environment free of intimidation,
harassment, and discrimination based on characteristics such as gender, race, age, sexual orientation,
disability, religious or political beliefs and affiliations. I will address any related issues that surface
immediately; please help me to cultivate a positive classroom environment by communicating any
concerns that you have.

Managing Stress. Personal concerns such as stress, anxiety, relationships, depression, cultural
differences, can interfere with the ability of students to succeed and thrive. For resources, contact
UCSB Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS).

MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES

If you are experiencing any difficulties meeting class requirements, or any difficulties in your per-
sonal life, please contact Counseling and Psychological Services. For information, please call (805-893-
4411) or visit their web site ([Link]).

STATEMENT ON SEXUAL HARASSMENT

“UCSB does not tolerate sexual harassment/sexual violence, which is prohibited by University
policy and state and federal law. The Title IX Compliance and Sexual Harassment Policy Compliance
Office (TIX/SHPC) provides assistance in preventing and resolving and investigating complaints of
sexual harassment/sexual violence and gender discrimination.” ([Link]

Campus Services
In addition to the services that can be found under the Wellbeing drop down menu (located at
the top GauchoSpace page) you can also find support services available to you at: [Link]
[Link]/getting-started-ucsb/campus-services.