Fall 2026 Course Description

MCS 142 Introduction to Statistics

Contact Info.

Instructor: Aaron Nienow
Office: 302 Olin Hall
Email: anienow2@gustavus.edu
Class Schedule: Calendar
Tutoring: Times and Locations

Times

• Classes meet from 8:00 to 9:05 on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in Olin 329.
• Office hour by appointment from 9:45 to 10:45 on Tuesday and Thursday
• Drop-In Office hour from 9:15 to 10:15 on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday

Classes

Classes will be used for discussion, problem solving, lecture, and other activities. Students should prepare for classes by watching the recorded lectures, taking notes, thinking about the problems, and formulating questions of their own. Students should actively participate in class discussions and activities.

Comments:

• Be respectful and courteous to your classmates and instructor. Your background, experiences, and understanding of the material may differ from that of others in the class.
• Should you need to miss a class for any reason, you are still responsible for the material covered in that class. This includes notes, readings, and assignments.
• Student comments:
• "Stay on top of the homework or else it gets overwhelming."
• "Ask questions!"
• "Make sure to do all the homework. It really helps you understand the material even if sometimes it feels like busy work.""
• "Definitely do it! I was scared to take the class, because I consider myself a humanities person, and I have tried to stay away from STEM class as much as I can. However, I really ended up enjoying this class, and often felt extremely relieved to be able to use my brain in a different way than my other classes require of me. I thought I would be lost taking this class, but the instruction was all really clear and I often didn't have too many questions following the lectures. Just make sure you go to all the lectures (or watch all the videos if it is taught virtually again). And don't hesitate to ask for help, because all the material builds on each other, so you need to understand the basics."
• "Keep up with the work and be ready for group projects"

Attendance

Attendance is MANDATORY. It is impossible for you to participate in class if you are not attending. Your final grade will drop by one letter grade for every three unexcused absences. An absence is excused if it is due to a school-related activity. Athletics, musical and theatrical performances, interviews, career fairs, and conferences are all examples of excused absences. At least 24 hours notice for an excused absence is appreciated. Please talk to your instructor if you need to miss class or have any questions about the attendance policy.

Assignments

Assignments and their due dates will be posted to the course Moodle page. It is your responsibility to check to see when work is due. Assignments turned in after the deadline are late. I DO NOT accept late work unless there is a serious and compelling reason. I do, however, drop at least two work scores at the end of the semester. If you have questions on problems you are encouraged to get help during office hours or ask the statistics tutors.

Assignments are designed to reinforce the material covered in lectures. Your solutions will be submitted as a pdf to Moodle. You may work on assignments with ONE other student. You and your partner should turn in a single copy of the assignment with both your names on it.

The grader will NOT grade all of the assigned problems. Several representative problems will be selected and reviewed. Each assignment is worth 2 points.

• To earn a 2, you must provide correct answers that show you fully understand the material.
• A score of 1 indicates that your answers are partially correct or your understanding of the material is incomplete or flawed.
• A score of 0 indicates that your answers are incorrect or you demonstrate little to no understanding of the material.

Quizzes

There will be roughly one quiz for each lecture. Quizzes will be administered through Moodle at the beginning of class. Quiz questions come directly from lecture and discussion. You will need to complete the quizzes to unlock assignments. You may use YOUR notes to complete the quiz, but no other resources.

Exams

There are 5 exams scheduled throughout the semester. Exams cover roughly 2 - 3 weeks worth of material.

Tentative Exam Schedule

• Exam 1: Wednesday September 16
• Exam 2: Friday October 9
• Exam 3: Wednesday November 4
• Exam 4: Wednesday November 18
• Exam 5: Monday December 14

Course Grade

You will be provided with a score on each assignment, quiz, and exam so that you may keep track of your performance. You can see all of your graded work in Moodle. As a guideline, the components will contribute in the following way to the final grade:

Category	Percent
Exams	75%
Assignments	15%
Quizzes	10%

Grade	Percent
A	[93%, 100%]
A-	[90%, 93%)
B+	[87%, 90%)
B	[83%, 87%)
B-	[80%, 83%)
C+	[77%, 80%)
C	[73%, 77%)
C-	[70%, 73%)
D+	[67%, 70%)
D	[60%, 67%)
F	[0, 60%)

Tutoring

The MCS department has peer tutors available for a range of introductory courses. The department keeps a schedule of when tutoring is offered and which courses the tutors can help with. That schedule can be found here.

Please be aware of the following information regarding the MCS tutors:

• All students are welcome at MCS tutoring whether it is to ask specific questions or just to use the space to work. Students, including tutors, are expected to be respectful of others.
• Students must sign in using the QR code before receiving tutoring.
• Students are responsible for bringing all necessary materials (course notes, textbook, handouts, etc.) with them to tutoring. The tutors cannot help without these materials.
• Students are responsible for knowing and communicating with the tutor about what type of assistance they are allowed to have.
• A tutor will not help with problems on an assignment in which outside resources are not allowed. However, a tutor can help explain concepts and work through a similar type of problem.
• Regardless of the type of assignment, it is not a tutor’s job to provide the correct answer or do the problem for the student.
• Students are responsible for the correctness of their answers. It is not the tutors’ job to check that all answers on an assignment are correct. Tutors are available to help students learn concepts.

Academic Integrity

Honor Code:"On my honor I pledge that I have not given, received, or tolerated others' use of unauthorized aid in completing this work."

Gustavus Adolphus College is proud to operate under an (honor system). The faculty and students have jointly created an Honor Board to enforce the Honor Code and the Academic Honesty Policy. It is your responsibility, as a student, to ask questions if you are not sure about situations such as when to cite a source, how to cite a source, sharing data with lab-mates, and avoiding inadvertent cheating when working in groups. It is also your responsibility to learn about the policy and the consequences for violations so please ask questions!

The overarching principle of the Academic Honesty Policy is that students shall submit their own work, in fairness to others and to self. Your professor wants you, a developing scholar, to be able to take pride in your own academic work and to maintain your academic integrity. Citations must accompany any use of another’s words or ideas that are not common knowledge. Quoting or paraphrasing from electronic sources without proper citation is as serious a violation as copying from a book or other printed source. Using content generated by an artificial intelligence third-party service or site (AI-generated content) is prohibited. A student may not submit work that is substantially the same in two courses without first gaining permission of both instructors if the courses are taken concurrently, or permission of the current instructor if the work has been submitted in a previous semester. Ask your professor if you have questions about a particular assignment or kind of work. Please make sure you fully understand the rules related to online work, as it pertains to this course.

The sanction in this course for a violation of the Honor Code involving plagiarism, copying another student on an exam, or other kinds of cheating on a single assignment will usually be an “F” on the plagiarized assignment or exam. For a more significant event, I, your professor, reserve the right to assign you a grade of “F” for the course. In addition, for any Honor Code violation, I will notify the Provost’s Office. A letter will be generated by the Provost’s Office and sent to you. The letter will remain on file. There will be no further consequence, beyond the course penalty and the letter, if you do not commit any further Honor Code violations. Repeat offenses could ultimately lead to dismissal from the College. A second violation in this course will result in an immediate F for the course. You have the right to appeal any Honor Code violation through an Honor Board hearing process. In this course, your professor aims for you to learn how to cite sources properly, do your own work on all exams, and function as a scholar with integrity. Please feel welcome to ask questions about the important matter of Academic Honesty and let me know how I can best support your learning.

• Assignments: You may work in groups, but groups should be no larger than TWO students. You should make a real effort to solve each problem by yourself, although you can, and should, discuss problems and their solutions with your classmates after you've made this effort. Be sure to credit any sources that helped you find solutions..
• Quizzes: You are expected to work on quizzes on your own. You may use YOUR notes on quizzes.
• Exams: Exams are given in class. You are expected to work on exams on your own unless otherwise specified.

Artificial Intelligence Usage

The assignments in this class have been designed to challenge you to develop creativity, critical-thinking, and problem-solving skills. Using AI technology may limit your capacity to develop these skills and to meet the learning goals of this course.

ALL work submitted for this course must be your own. Any student use of AI tools when working on assignments or activities is NOT permitted. This restriction applies to all coursework and/or specific assignments such as exams, reflections, clinical scenarios, research analyses and is intended to ensure that all submitted work directly reflects your independent knowledge, skills, and learning. Use of AI will be considered academic misconduct and subject to investigation under the Gustavus Honor Code.If you have any questions about what constitutes academic integrity in this course, please feel free to contact your instructor to discuss your concerns.

Standards

Minnesota Education Standards that are met in this course can be found here

Academic Accommodation for Religious Observance

A student whose religious observance conflicts with a course requirement may request an academic accommodation from the instructor. Students should normally make such requests in writing by the end of the second week of classes, but there may be exceptions. Students may also request accommodations for religious traditions surrounding death and dying when the need arises. The Chaplains' Office annually publishes a multifaith holiday calendar with accommodation notations. You can find it here: https://gustavus.edu/chaplain/multifaith/. However, this list is not exhaustive and observances are not necessarily days when individuals will not attend work or school. There are also different levels of observance in different traditions. The Chaplains’ Office is available for consultation on any requests for accommodation that are not included in their calendar.

Academic Accommodations

Gustavus Adolphus College is committed to ensuring equitable and inclusive learning environments for all students. If you have a disability and anticipate or experience barriers to equal access, please speak with the accessibility resources staff about your needs. A disability may include mental health, attentional, learning, chronic health, sensory, physical, and/or short-term conditions. Students with a documented elevated risk of COVID-19 may also request academic accommodations. When appropriate, staff will guide students and professors in making accommodations to ensure equal access. Accommodations cannot be made retroactively; therefore, to maximize your academic success at Gustavus, please contact them as early as possible. Accessibility resources staff are located in the Academic Support Center (x7227). Accessibility Resources Coordinator, Cinde Wiebusch (cwiebusc@gustavus.edu"), can provide further information.

Help for Multilingual Students

Some Gusties may have grown up speaking a language (or languages) other than English at home. If so, we refer to you as "multilingual". Your multilingual background is an incredible resource for you, and for our campus, but it can come with some challenges. You can find support through the Center for International and Cultural Education's (https://gustavus.edu/cice/) Multilingual and Intercultural Program Coordinator (MIPC), Carly Overfelt (overfelt@gustavus.edu). Carly can meet individually for tutoring in writing, consulting about specific assignments, and helping students connect with the College's support systems. If you want help with a specific task (for example, reading word problems on an exam quickly enough or revising grammar in essays), let your professor and Carly know as soon as possible. In addition, the Writing Center offers tutoring from peers (some of whom are themselves multilingual) who can help you do your best writing.

Research Help

You can always get help with your research at the library. Reference librarians will help you find information on a topic, develop search strategies for papers and projects, search library catalogs and databases, and provide assistance at every step. Drop-ins and appointments are both welcome. Visit https://gustavus.edu/library/reference_question.php for hours, location, and more information.

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